


Special Chronicles

by 1358456



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: F/M, Gen, Humor, Randomness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-04-16 16:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 58,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14169204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1358456/pseuds/1358456
Summary: An Ao3 re-upload of my stories from FF.net, merging two stories into one.Story based on Pokemon Special, the manga. This is a collection of random one-shots, featuring Dex Holders involved in random humorous situations, or simply hanging out, merged from two separate collections from the other site. Namely, Special Randomness (November 2011 – February 2015), and Special Chronicles (September 2014 – November 2016). Therefore many things may seem outdated in the first portion of the story.





	1. The String

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on November 8, 2011. It marks the start of "Special Randomness", aiming at random humor.

Chapter 1: The String

Ruby peeked out of his room in the Jubilife Hotel (owned by Platinum Berlitz) to make sure no one was in the hallways. He shut the door and the windows before continuing his conversation on the Pokégear.

“Okay… I understand…” he said. “… … All of them? … … No problem. I can handle it.” He hung up and put the Pokégear away. With a sigh, he reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of black gloves. “Time to get to work…”

Ruby headed out of the room and began to walk down the hall. Before long, he could see Diamond walking around, looking for Platinum.

“Excuse me,” the Sinnoh boy said as he came closer. “Did you see the Lady anywhere? We were playing hide and seek and she seems to have disappeared.”

Ruby smiled. ‘ _Too easy…_ ’ “Well, I told her that she could hide in my room. So… come.”

The Hoenn Dex Holder led the way and his junior followed. Ruby opened the door to his room and entered. The moment Diamond entered the room, Ruby shut the door. Diamond began to look around while Ruby reached for his bag.

“Lady, if you’re in here, I’m going to find you!” Diamond said as he began to look around the furniture.

“No Dia. You won’t,” Ruby said from behind.

Diamond turned to face his senior, wondering what he was talking about. Ruby suddenly knocked him down to the ground, with a long string in his hands.

“Whaa? What are you doing?” Diamond asked.

Ruby kept a foot on his junior’s chest to make sure he doesn’t get up. “Don’t worry,” he said as he tested the durability of the string. “If you don’t struggle or make a sound, this will be over quick…”

…

Several minutes later…

…

Platinum peeked around the couch she was hiding behind, to see if Diamond had come to find her. Satisfied that the boy wasn’t there yet, the heiress smiled and hid herself again. Her Pokégear started to vibrate, and she checked who was calling.

“Hello? Senior Ruby?” the heiress answered silently.

“Hey, Platinum… uh… quick, come to my room. Dia was looking for you in my room, and he… uh… had a little accident. He tripped and hit his head on a shelf, and… uh… just get here.”

Platinum gasped. “Oh no… Diamond! Yes senior, I shall go there at once!” The heiress hung up and quickly left her room. She then ran towards the stairs so she could get to Ruby’s room on the floor below.

Within a minute, the heiress reached Ruby’s room. She hastily knocked on the door and Ruby opened it. He let Platinum enter and shut the door. A few seconds later, the heiress let out a terrified scream…

…

Next target…

…

Ruby peeked through the peephole in his door and could see Gold walking by. Ruby silently opened the door and grabbed his senior from behind.

“Hey, what the hell?!” the goggled boy yelled as Ruby dragged him backwards.

“Quiet. It’ll all be over soon…”

The goggled boy tried to yell something but the Hoenn Dex Holder put his gloved hand over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything. All Gold could do was let out a muffled noise as his junior dragged him into his room…

Half a minute later, Crystal came by and knocked on Ruby’s door. She noticed that the door was unlocked so she opened it.

“Hey Ruby, can I borrow your measur…” Crystal trailed off. She could see Ruby testing the durability of a string and the lower half of Gold (the upper part was hidden from her sight by a couch) not moving on the floor. Seeing the surprised expression on Ruby’s face, Crystal gasped in shock. “Ruby, what did you…”

“You were supposed to be my second last target, but… you saw too much!” Ruby exclaimed as he quickly approached his senior.

Crystal hastily turned and tried to run. She let out a short scream before Ruby clasped a hand over her mouth and dragged her into the room…

…

Several minutes later…

…

“Hey Ruby! Open up!” Sapphire yelled as she knocked on the door.

The door opened and Ruby appeared. “What do you want, Sapphire?”

“Blue needs to borrow your sewing kit,” the girl said. “She said it was an emergency.” She looked at Ruby’s hands. “Hey, why are you wearing those gloves? What happened to your old ones?”

“Oh these? They’re…” Ruby trailed off. He pretended to look at something behind Sapphire. “Hey Sapphire, what’s that?” he asked, pointing past her.

Sapphire turned around to see what he was pointing at. The moment her back was turned, Ruby grabbed her from behind. Before the girl could struggle much, he dragged her into his room. He quickly shut the door with his foot and knocked Sapphire down to the floor. The girl could see that Ruby was holding a long piece of string.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!” she yelled.

Ruby quickly grabbed both of her wrists and pinned them down on the floor. But Sapphire simply overpowered him and pushed him off of her. She then sprang up to her feet and tackled Ruby down to the floor just as he was getting back up. This time, Ruby pushed her off of him.

“Just relax, Sapphire! It’ll all be over soon!” he yelled as he grabbed his length of string again.

“The hell it will!”

The two Hoenn Dex Holders struggled for a few minutes, knocking over furniture and generally causing a ruckus. But eventually, Sapphire was on top of Ruby, pushing down on his back with her knee.

“Get off me!” Ruby yelled.

“Never! You tried to kill me!” Sapphire yelled back.

“What?! No! Why would I do that?” Ruby asked back, bewildered.

“It was you, wasn’t it?! You killed Platinum and Dia!” Sapphire yelled. “No wonder I couldn’t find them!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

Suddenly, the door opened and Blue appeared. She appeared a little angry as she crossed her arms and glared at the two Hoenn Dex Holders.

“How long does it take to borrow a sewing kit?!” she asked.

“It’s only taking a while because Ruby tried to kill me!” Sapphire said. “He killed Platinum and Dia!”

“What? That’s impossible!” Blue said. “I just saw Platinum on my way down here. And Dia’s in the cafeteria.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not trying to kill anyone!” Ruby yelled.

“But… you attacked me with that string!”

Blue picked up the string and looked at it. “Sapphire, look at the string carefully.”

Sapphire got off of Ruby and received the mystery string. She looked at it very carefully, and noticed that it was…

“… Dental floss?”

Ruby rose to his feet and sighed. “Look, I’m supposed to be advertising this brand of dental floss. I’m supposed to show it to every Dex Holder and let them try it for themselves.” Blue looked at him curiously. Ruby sighed again. “Yes, I’m doing a little product placement. I’ve got to get paid too!”

“Then… why did you attack me from behind?” Sapphire asked. “You could’ve just told me to try the new dental floss.”

“Come on… if I just told you to try the dental floss, you won’t listen! And think. How many of the Dex Holders would try the floss if I just told them to?”

“Good point,” Blue said. “Hey Ruby, let me try.”

Ruby reached in his bag and pulled out the dental floss packet. He tossed it to his senior. “Why do you need the sewing kit anyways?”

“My bag’s strap ripped,” Blue replied as she pulled out a length of dental floss.

“ _That_ was the emergency?” Sapphire asked.

“Of course that’s an emergency!” Blue and Ruby replied at once.

Blue tested the dental floss. “Hey, this is pretty good.”

“Yep. Easy grip, durable, and cleans better,” the ex-Johto boy replied.

Just then, Platinum appeared in the doorway, as she was curious how the dental floss advertisement had been going. Seeing the heiress, Sapphire believed Ruby completely and felt a little embarrassed at her reaction. She tried the dental floss herself while Platinum explained how Ruby got her.

“But please do not scare me like that,” the heiress added after the explanation. “I was afraid that Diamond had been seriously injured…”

“You weren’t scared about the method of the _advertisement_?” Sapphire asked.

“That was terrifying as well,” Platinum said. “Once again, please do not do that again.”

“But hey, it was sort of fun for me,” Ruby said. “Hey, I could use your help,” he said to the gathered Dex Holders. “So far, I got… Gold, Crystal, and Dia.”

The female Dex Holders glanced at each other.

“Well then… I’ll take Green and Silver,” Blue said.

“I shall take care of Pearl,” Platinum added.

“I’ll take Red and Yellow,” Sapphire said.

“Then that leaves me with Emerald. Great,” Ruby said. “It’s fun, trust me.” He took out several dental floss packets and pairs of gloves and handed them out to his ‘partners in crime’. “All right. Let’s go!”

…

Red…

…

The Kanto champion slowly walked towards the stairs while whistling. He was somewhat hungry, so he was going to the cafeteria in the second floor of the hotel. Platinum had assured him that the food was very good, so he couldn’t wait to try it.

He turned a corner and could see the stairs at the end of the hallway. But just after taking three steps, something happened…

Sapphire suddenly dropped into his vision from above, hanging upside down with a freaky grin on her face, with a long string between her hands. The Kanto champion could only let out a surprised yell as his junior lunged at him…

…

Green…

…

The Viridian Gym Leader sat on a chair in his room, reading the news. He flipped the page and reached for the glass of water on the table.

“… Hi, Blue,” he said after a sigh.

“… How did you know I was here?” came her voice from behind.

“I can see your reflection,” Green replied, looking at the glass of water. The Gym Leader rose to his feet and turned to face Blue. She quickly tried to hide the dental floss, but it was too late. “What the… Was that dental floss?”

Blue groaned. ‘ _Stupid Green… ruining my fun…_ ’ “Yes, it is…”

“How much are you trying to scam this time?”

“It’s not a scam! I haven’t scammed anyone in nearly a decade! This is legitimate advertisement! Want to give it a try?” Blue asked.

“How much is it going to cost me?”

“Nothing! It’s just a sample.”

Green sighed. “Fine.”

…

Yellow…

…

Sapphire waited in Yellow’s room, waiting for her senior to enter. After surprising the hell out of Red with the assassination-style _advertisement_ , she wanted to see if she could top that.

“… Okay, I’ll see you at dinner, Crystal,” came Yellow’s voice from outside.

Sapphire quickly ran and hid under the bed. Soon, she could hear Yellow walking closer. She could see her senior’s feet on the floor as the Kanto Dex Holder simply sat on the bed. Taking this chance, Sapphire silently rolled out away from Yellow. She could see her simply staring ahead, lost in thought.

‘ _Perfect…_ ’ Sapphire thought to herself. She quietly and carefully moved onto the bed and approached her senior from behind, with a long piece of dental floss in hand…

Outside of Yellow’s room, Crystal was about to enter her own room when she heard a loud scream for a short while before it got muffled.

“Huh… so they got her too, huh?” she muttered. She slowly shook her head. “Dental floss…”

…

Silver…

…

Silver slowly headed towards the stairs so that he could go to Blue’s room. There was something he wanted to ask, and she wasn’t answering her Pokégear. But as he turned a corner, he could see Blue walking towards him.

“Hey sis. I was about to go up to your room,” he said as he walked closer. But he noticed something odd…

Blue had a pair of black gloves and was holding some kind of a long string. “Silver…” she said rather ominously. “It’s time…”

“Uh… sis?”

“It’s time…” she repeated as she approached Silver. The Johto Dex Holder was simply frozen as she came holding the string as if she was going to kill someone.

“Sis? What are you doing?” Silver asked, sensing dread.

“It’s time… … for you to try this new dental floss!”

…

Emerald…

…

Emerald entered his room and noticed that it was in the exact state as he left it: a mess. He approached the bed and noticed that the blanket was on the floor in a big heap. The last time he checked, the blanket was on top of the bed in a heap. Emerald reasoned that the blanket probably fell off and reached with his Magic Hand Extensors. The moment he grabbed the blanket, it somehow shot up…

Ruby emerged from the blanket and tackled his fellow Hoenn Dex Holder down to the floor. The blanket fell over them and muffled everything Emerald yelled out.

“Everything will be over soon!” Ruby assured as he placed his gloved hand on Emerald’s mouth (and nose). “It won’t take long…”

…

Pearl…

…

“Hey Miss Lady, why’d you call me?” Pearl asked as he entered Platinum’s room. He could see the heiress trying to move the couch.

“Pearl, could you please help me move this?” Platinum asked.

“Oh… sure.”

Pearl walked over to Platinum and gave her a hand in moving the couch. Both Sinnoh Dex Holders pulled on the couch and as the furniture was placed where the heiress wanted, she quickly struck.

Platinum let go of the couch and jumped onto Pearl from behind, wrapping one arm around the boy’s throat and using the other arm to prevent him from moving his good arm.

“Hey, what the?!” Pearl yelled. “Miss Lady, what are you doing?!”

“Please remain quiet, Pearl,” Platinum said as she put her friend in a complete sleeper hold. “This will not take long if you do not struggle.”

…

A few hours later…

…

Ruby waited outside the hotel in the dark. Before long, a black car stopped in the shadows and a few people stepped out. Ruby quietly approached them.

“The deed is done?” one of them asked.

“Yes. I got all of them,” Ruby replied. “Now, about our agreement…”

One of the men reached into his pocket and withdrew some money. “Here. 40 000 PKD, like we agreed.”

Ruby took the bills and after checking, put them in his pocket. “All right. Nice doing business with you.” The Hoenn Dex Holder turned away and headed towards the hotel entrance when someone stopped him.

“Wait,” he said. “We want you to advertise this,” he said as he held up something in the air. “We’ll give you double.”

Ruby turned and looked at the item being held up. “Extension cords?” ‘ _That’s going to be very fun…_ ’ “80 000 PKD you say? Make it 100 000 PKD.”

“Done,” the man replied. “Here’s 20 000 PKD for now. You’ll get the rest after you complete your task.”

Ruby took the money and the extension cord and checked the cord. “Hmm… durable… _very_ durable… light…”

“And takes absolutely no damage from being folded or stepped on.”

“Nice…”


	2. The Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded in November 14, 2011. Its inspiration comes from an old variety show episode.

Chapter 2: The Choice

11 am…

Platinum looked through the windows in her personal home (as opposed to the family mansion in Sandgem Town) in Cerulean City. She could see the Nugget Bridge from her apartment and the river flowing underneath.

Although the apartment was rather small, the heiress felt that it was good enough. She had bought some of the other Dex Holders second homes in the Kanto/Johto region so that all the Dex Holders could gather quickly.

Ruby was now living in Goldenrod City near his old home, Sapphire in Azalea Town near the Ilex Forest, and Diamond and Pearl were living in adjacent apartments in Saffron City. Of course, Platinum had brought some of the servants and maids from the Berlitz Mansion to aid the Dex Holders in their new homes.

Platinum snapped out of her thoughts when her Pokégear started to vibrate. She picked it up. It seemed that she received a video message. With slight hesitation, she played the video. For the next 3 minutes, she watched in horror as her seniors Red and Green were strapped to explosives, calling for help. The narrator (a fake voice) told her to go to storage room 1 in the basement of Celadon City department store if she wishes to rescue Red, while she should go to storage room 2 for Green. She could only save one. The time limit was until 2 pm…

But once the video ended, the heiress felt that something was odd. For one, she doubted that her seniors would actually call for help, and two, if her two seniors were actually taken hostage, then she would’ve heard the news from Blue.

Platinum sighed in relief. “Whew… I suppose this is just a test to see who I shall pick during desperate times.”

She rose to her feet and left her apartment. She couldn’t possibly walk or ride the bicycle to Celadon City within 3 hours, so she took the bus.

At the same time, the rest of Sinnoh, Johto, and Hoenn Dex Holders received the same message.

Emerald replayed the video. Crystal, who had been visiting the other orphans in Earl’s Academy, prepared to leave.

“Do I _have_ to save one?” Emerald asked.

Crystal sighed. “Emerald… if you don’t pick, then both Red _and_ Green are going to get angry at you. Do you want that?”

“… No, I do not. Fine, let’s go…”

Crystal lent her junior a Flying Pokémon and with her own Xatu, left Violet City.

In Saffron City, Diamond and Pearl wondered what exactly they should do. They couldn’t really decide, so they decided to wait for Platinum to arrive in Saffron City and decide with her.

Gold simply hopped onto his Mantine and headed towards Celadon City. He didn’t need to think about who he was going to save. It was pretty obvious. Sapphire too, had the same thought as Gold. She knew exactly who she was going to save.

The other Dex Holders each had their own methods of travel and headed towards Celadon City, though they did not know who they were going to save.

…

Meanwhile, basement of Celadon City Department Store…

…

“Blue, tell me again why exactly I’m doing this,” said Green with a sigh.

“Because this’ll show you which Dex Holders will choose to rescue you in times of need!” Blue said with a smile.

Green shook his head. “Again, why are you doing this? This is just going to ruin friendships with other Dex Holders.”

Blue crossed her arms. “Yellow and I were talking, and she said that Red was more likeable compared to you. And I said that it wasn’t true, and we made a bet. So I suggested doing this. If I lose, then I have to buy everyone dinner today. If I win, then Yellow has to.”

Green sighed again. “What is this? A popularity contest? You know that I don’t care about popularity.”

“Come on, Green. Don’t you want to know who will come to save you in the time of need?”

“I can tell you right now that Gold and Sapphire will save Red. Crystal would probably save me.”

Blue smiled. “We’ll see, Green.”

She walked away and crouched in the shadows, so that she was hidden but could still see Green. She took her Pokégear and watched the feeds from the cameras she installed. Camera 1 was in the hall right before the split where the Dex Holders had to decide who they were going to save. Camera 2 was placed in Red’s room. Camera 3 was placed in Green’s room. The two cameras in the storage rooms were recording everything that was happening so that Red and Green would find out what happened in the other rooms.

In the other storage room, Red had a blank look on his face while Yellow played with her hair nervously. After some 5 minutes, Red finally spoke.

“So… why did I have to pretend like I was going to die?” he asked, turning to face Yellow.

Stammering, Yellow told him of the bet she made with Blue. Red raised an eyebrow.

“I… see?” When Yellow tried to explain further, he stopped her. “It doesn’t matter. I guess it would be fun to see who would try to save who.”

…

Department store entrance, 11:20 am…

…

Silver arrived first, and stared at the department store. He figured that he was the first one to arrive, and wondered if he should proceed to ‘rescue’ his seniors. He eventually decided that it would be _very_ awkward if he was all alone with one of his seniors, and decided to go eat something from the food court first.

Silver checked his watch. He decided to wait for two hours so that plenty of other Dex Holders would gather in the storage rooms. Silver entered the department store and headed straight towards the food court.

11:50 am…

Ruby deactivated his Running Shoes and looked at the department store. He wondered if he was the first one to arrive.

“Hmm… if I’m one of the first ones to arrive, then… it’s going to be really boring and awkward to be in a room all alone with a senior I chose to rescue…” Ruby muttered. He crossed his arms and sighed. “I wonder if I should do some shopping first. This is the greatest store in Kanto, after all…”

A few seconds later, Ruby entered the department store and headed upstairs where he would be able to purchase all sorts of fascinating stuff so that he would decorate his Johto-home. His seniors could wait…

12 pm…

Gold arrived at the department store and stretched. He was going to save Red, but… he was going to get lunch first. The ‘bomb’ wasn’t going to detonate for another two hours, and he was quite hungry, so…

12:20 pm…

Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum arrived in front of the Celadon City Department Store. They haven’t yet decided who they would save. Platinum didn’t really want to pick one of her seniors over the other, and Diamond and Pearl wanted to pick whoever the heiress was going to pick.

“Perhaps we should decide this over lunch?” Pearl suggested. “I mean… it’s lunch time, and we still have over an hour before we reach the time limit.”

“Pearl, surely you do not intend to keep our seniors waiting?” Platinum asked.

“Miss Lady, you don’t know who you want to save yet.”

“Yes, but… it is not right for me to eat while my seniors are waiting,” the heiress said. She let out a long sigh. “Diamond, Pearl, if you are hungry, then go eat lunch. I shall go and save my seniors.”

“Who are you going to save, Lady?” Diamond asked.

“I do not know,” the heiress replied. “I really… do not know…” She suddenly perked up as an idea formed. “Diamond, Pearl, I want one of you to save senior Red and the other to save senior Green. And make sure you bring lunch for them.”

“Of course.”

Platinum waved good bye to her friends and headed downstairs. In the basement, she ran into a fork in the hallway. If she went left, then she would find storage room 1, where Red was. If she headed right, then she would find storage room 2, where Green was. The heiress sighed and looked both ways.

“Senior Red or senior Green…” she muttered. She let out a long sigh. She really didn’t want to pick one senior over the other. In truth, Platinum felt that she was closer to Red than Green. But she also knew that Red was a lot more forgiving than Green. “What should I do?”

12:30 pm…

Crystal and Emerald jumped off of their Pokémon and looked at the department store. Emerald continued grumbling about his hunger and being forced to save one of two people he didn’t really care about.

“Let’s eat something first,” he said.

“What? Emerald, our seniors need our help. Sure, it’s just for show, but still. We can’t eat while they’re waiting for us. That’s disloyal to our seniors who probably haven’t eaten anything either.”

Gold saw Crystal land and had come out to greet her.

“Hey Super Serious Gal, come eat lunch with us,” he said.

“Us?” Crystal asked back.

“Yeah. Silver’s eating lunch up there too,” Gold replied. “Dia and Pearl are there too.”

“… Did _anyone_ go down to save Red or Green?” Crystal asked.

“Uh… I think Platinum’s down there, but I’m not sure,” Gold replied.

Crystal sighed. “Emerald, go eat lunch then. I’m going to save our seniors.”

“Oh come on, Crys!”

“You should eat something first!” Emerald joined.

“NO!” Crystal yelled. “I’m going to save our seniors!”

But Gold and Emerald each grabbed Crystal’s arm and dragged her towards the food court in the department store.

…

Meanwhile…

…

“What the hell is taking them so long?” Green growled out.

Blue looked at the camera feeds. “I saw Platinum walking down the halls, but I don’t think she decided on who she’s going to save.” She looked over at Green. “Who do you think she’ll save?”

“I don’t know. I always give her practice Gym Battles and help her prepare for other Gyms, but Red does take care of her better.” Green took a deep breath. “Now that I think about it, she’ll save Red.”

12:40 pm…

Platinum sighed for the hundredth time. She eventually gathered enough courage to pick… The heiress sighed again and headed left, to storage room 1, where Red was. The Kanto champion did take care of her a lot more than the Viridian Gym Leader, after all.

Platinum approached storage room 1 and quietly opened the door. It was dark, so she carefully entered.

“Senior Red?” she called as she walked down the small set of stairs. “Senior Red?”

The heiress walked around a corner and instantly froze. Waiting for her, sitting on a chair, was… Green? The Viridian Gym Leader slowly rose to his feet. Platinum simply looked at him, too stunned for words.

“So… I wait in this room, on that chair, feeling ridiculous for nearly two hours, only to find out that you abandoned me,” Green started slowly. “After all those practice Gym Battles I gave you.”

“Um… I… um…” Platinum stammered, trembling in fear. “B – But… why… … how…”

“Pesky girl’s idea,” Green replied. “We swapped rooms so those who try to save Red will run into me, and those who try to save me will run into Red.”

Blue slowly walked into view. “I’m sorry to surprise you like this, Platinum,” she started. “But… it’s fun to watch a _really_ awkward moment.”

Green turned to face her. “You sadistic monster…”

“Hey, I take offense to that!”

Platinum suddenly dropped to her knees and bowed to Green. “I – I am terribly sorry, senior!”

“It’s fine,” Green said as he sat back down on his chair. Blue put the hostage-costume on him again. “Pesky girl… I look ridiculous.”

“P – Please forgive me…” Platinum said, her voice shaking. “I – I did not wish to pick one senior over the other…”

“I said it’s fine,” Green said again.

“Please do not hate me…”

“I said it’s fine!” the Gym Leader yelled.

Platinum froze. She dared not look at her senior and instead, remained trembling on her knees with her face almost touching the floor.

“That was harsh,” Blue said.

Green sighed. “Apart from scaring Platinum, skipping lunch, feeling awkward, and looking ridiculous, is there anything else you want me to do today?”

“… Take me out on a date?” Blue suggested.

Green sighed again and shook his head. “I’ll ignore that.”

5 minutes later, 12:45 pm…

Sapphire jumped off of her Tropius and unlike just about everyone, quickly headed to the basement. When she approached the split in the hall, she took a brief look to the left (where Red is supposed to be) and to the right. Without much hesitation, she headed left. She entered the room and walked silently deep into the room.

“Red!” Sapphire yelled. “Red! Where are you?”

Sapphire turned a corner and instantly froze in her tracks. She could see Green with his arms crossed, sitting on a chair. To her horror, the Viridian Gym Leader slowly rose to his feet and approached her.

“Who were you trying to save?” he asked with a deadly glare.

“I… um… … I… um…” Sapphire stammered as she nervously backed away. After a nervous gulp, she dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together. “Please don’t kill me!”

Green smirked. “Don’t worry about it. I knew this would happen.”

Sapphire still remained on her knees, afraid to move. Once Green sat back down on the chair, Sapphire slowly got up and hid behind some boxes. She was surprised to see Platinum hiding there, hugging her knees and her face buried in her arms.

“Platinum?” Sapphire whispered.

“Hello, senior,” the heiress whispered back.

“So you chose Red too, huh?”

“I – I did not wish to pick one senior over the other…” Platinum muttered.

Sapphire patted her junior on the shoulder. “I know. But look at it this way. At least Red will take better care of you once he knows that you picked him.”

“I suppose so…”

1 pm…

Gold, Silver, Crystal, and Emerald _finally_ came across the split in the hallway that would determine their fate. Silver wanted to wait another 30 minutes, but he was dragged downstairs by Crystal. Gold looked left and right before he headed to storage room 1 to save Red. Silver headed to storage room 2, under the belief that Blue would be with Green.

“Yo, senior Red! I’m coming!” Gold yelled as he (loudly) entered storage room 1. “Where are you?” He ran down the short set of stairs and turned the corner. He instantly froze upon seeing Green glaring at him. “Oh… … this is just not fair…”

Suddenly, Sapphire started to clap as she rose to her feet. Gold looked at her and was slightly relieved to know that he would not be alone with the pissed-off Green. The Viridian Gym Leader glared at Sapphire and she instantly hid behind the boxes again. The Gym Leader glanced at Gold and pointed at the boxes. The goggled boy avoided eye contact and slowly headed towards the boxes where he would be able to hide.

“I told you that those three would save Red, didn’t I?” Green said to Blue.

“Well… the score is 3:0, but now the _real_ fun begins! Now whoever walks in here would be unexpected!” Blue said rather cheerfully. ‘ _If Green loses, he’ll kill me! Oh, I never should’ve made this bet! This isn’t fair! It’s not my fault that Green is not liked by the others!_ ’

In storage room 2, Silver quietly entered and turned a corner. He could see Red dozing off in his chair and Yellow sitting on some boxes with a blank look. Upon seeing Silver, she snapped out and waved.

“Hi, Silver,” she said. “You’re our first visitor!”

Red snapped awake and looked at the Johto Dex Holder. “Finally, someone’s here!” he said as he rose to his feet. He was about to greet his junior when a thought occurred. “Wait… that’s a bad thing, right?”

Silver nodded. ‘ _I should’ve known sis would do something like this…_ ’ He noticed the awkward silence in the room and sighed. “Well… isn’t this just nice and awkward…”

Meanwhile, Crystal and Emerald stood at the fork in the hallway. To their left was storage room 1, and to the right storage room 2.

“So… who are you going to save?” Emerald asked. “Green? You two do work together.”

“I think I’ll surprise Red by saving him. I think it’d be better if I spend time with both Red and Green instead of just Green,” Crystal replied.

“Suit yourself. I’m going to save Green because he’s a lot scarier than Red when angry.”

The Hoenn Dex Holder headed right and entered storage room 2. Before long, he could see Red, Yellow, and Silver sitting in complete awkward silence.

“Hey, Emerald!” Red said as he greeted his junior. “You’re our second visitor!” He turned to look at Yellow. “That’s still a bad thing, right?”

Yellow nodded. She took out her Pokégear and called Blue. She wanted to know how many people were in storage room 1…

Outside, Crystal carefully opened the door and entered. “Red, where are you?” she called, unaware of the fate that will fall onto her in 10 seconds. “Red?”

Around the corner, Green gritted his teeth at the unexpected betrayal. It was bad enough that most of his juniors were saving Red instead of him (late, for that matter)…

10 seconds later, Crystal turned the corner and gasped. She froze as the Viridian Gym Leader rose to his feet and stomped towards her.

“Do I look like Red to you?!” Green asked angrily.

“Green! I – I… um…” Crystal stammered. ‘ _Something tells me that I should’ve expected this…_ ’

“Not only did you come late, but you betrayed me too? You… I expected different!”

“G – Green, listen!” Crystal said hastily. “I – I only picked Red because I wanted to get closer to him!”

“Hey, what the hell?!” Gold yelled as he rose from his cover. “Were you cheating on me or something?”

“No, not like that, you idiot!” Crystal yelled back.

“Both of you, shut up!” Green ordered. He glared at Crystal. “Answer this. Why were you late?”

“Um…” Crystal quickly tried to think of an excuse.

“She was eating lunch!” Gold yelled from behind. “I was simply walking by and I saw her eating instead of trying to save you!”

“He was the one who dragged me!” Crystal said, trying to explain herself. “I wanted to save my seniors as soon as possible but Emerald and that jerk dragged me and forced me to buy them lunch!”

Sapphire and Platinum silently watched from their cover. They glanced at each other and decided to _not_ do anything that would catch the furious Gym Leader’s attention. They were simply glad that Green had expected them to save Red, and that they did _not_ eat lunch.

Green glared at Gold, making the goggled boy flinch. The boy quietly hid behind boxes again. The Viridian Gym Leader glared at Crystal and made her flinch. He pointed at the boxes and Crystal quietly went to hide like ordered.

“Thanks for ratting me out, Crys,” Gold grumbled as Crystal took cover beside him.

“You started it, you jerk,” she grumbled back. “Thanks to you, Green’s going to hate me now.”

Green sighed to vent his frustration and glared at Blue, who had a hand over her face. “This had been a _brilliant_ plan,” he said sarcastically.

‘ _I’m screwed…_ ’ “Well…” she trailed off when her Pokégear started to ring. ‘ _Yes, saved!_ ’

Green sat on his chair again and glared at Blue while she talked on the Pokégear. A minute later, she hung up and looked at Green.

“What?”

“According to Yellow,” she started. “Silver and Emerald went to save you. So the score is 4:2 right now. You can still win this, you know. If Dia, Pearl, and Ruby go to save you, then you’ll win!” She checked the camera feeds. “Yep. Silver and Emerald are with Red and Yellow right now, and it’s getting _really_ awkward in there.”

Green shook his head. “Whatever. Diamond, Pearl, and Ruby had _better_ try to save me.”

Platinum quietly slapped a hand over her face. Sapphire looked at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I… I suggested that Diamond and Pearl save both our seniors… One of Diamond and Pearl will surely come to save senior Red while the other will try to save senior Green…” the heiress replied quietly.

“So… senior Red’s going to win?” Gold whispered in shock. “We’re screwed! If senior Green loses, he’ll be _pissed_!”

“If Green does lose, then Sapphire, Platinum,” Crystal said, looking at her two juniors. “You two will have to… you know… use what Blue taught you to try to make Green feel better.”

“Do you really think that’ll work?” Sapphire asked. “I mean… Blue tries it all the time and it never did her any good.”

“Well, you two are his juniors. I’m sure it’ll work,” Crystal replied. She peeked over her cover and saw Green glaring at Blue.

“Those three had _better_ end up in the other room,” he said.

‘ _Yes… they’d better…_ ’ “I’m sure they will…” Blue replied with a fake smile.

1:30 pm…

Outside, Ruby _finally_ came to the basement after buying as many things as his wallet would allow. Now all he needed to do was… get Sapphire’s opinion. If she liked the decoration items, then he would go get a refund. If she didn’t like the items, then he was good to decorate his home.

He stopped at the fork in the hall. He glanced left and right for a second, wondering which storage room Sapphire went to. He figured that Sapphire would go save her idol, so he headed left.

…

Meanwhile, storage room 2…

…

Red looked at the two juniors who came to save Green. They looked back with a blank expression, thus maintaining the awkward silence.

“So…” the Kanto champion started. “… Uh…”

“Are you two hungry?” Yellow asked. The other two Dex Holders shook their heads in unison. “Oh… … well… we are…”

The awkward silence resumed, and the four Dex Holders sighed in unison. This was going to be a _long_ and painful day…

In storage room 1, the four hiding Dex Holders whispered a plan to themselves while the two Kanto Dex Holders waited in silence for some _good_ news. Blue was nervous because she didn’t tell Green the _complete_ details about the whole ordeal (and the truth about the ‘bomb’), while Green was still upset about the fact that Crystal had betrayed him after all those years of working together.

The Gym Leader rose to his feet and paced around his chair as a method of venting his anger. Crystal flinched when Green sighed. She carefully rose to her feet and walked over.

“Um… Green?”

“What?”

Crystal suddenly hugged him, surprising everyone in the room. “I’m really sorry. Can you please forgive me?” she asked in the cutest voice she could muster.

Blue gasped in shock. She never thought that Crystal would ever attempt to use _Cute Charm_ against Green, or anyone for that matter. Sapphire and Platinum looked at each other, surprised at the sudden turn of events. Gold seemed to be in complete shock.

Green simply stared at Crystal. “… Did you drink something unusual?” he asked after a moment of thought. “You’re acting… strange.”

Crystal backed away at the unexpected question. ‘ _How rude!_ ’ “What? No!”

Gold jumped to his feet. “Hey, Crys! What the hell! What, are you going out with senior Green now?!”

“Would you just shut up?!” Crystal yelled at Gold. “You’re not helping!”

Green shook his head. “Crystal, when this is over, you’re taking a breath test and a drug test. If the tests return positive, then I’ll forgive your betrayal but you will be relieved of your workload and be forced into rehabilitation.”

‘ _Oh, come on!_ ’ “I’m not drunk or on drugs!” Crystal said. “This is absurd!”

“If the tests return negative,” Green continued. “Then you will have to explain yourself.”

“I was just trying to lighten your mood,” Crystal said after a sigh. “I’m sorry for trying.”

Crystal quickly ran back towards her cover in embarrassment. On her way, she kicked Gold in the knees as hard as she could.

“Ow! What the hell, Crys?!” the goggled boy yelped out.

Crystal ignored him and looked at Sapphire and Platinum, who were looking at her. “What?”

“Crystal, I thought you hated that trick,” Sapphire said.

“Well, I tried my plan and only embarrassed myself. Happy?” Crystal retorted. She sighed. “Sorry… I just feel ridiculous…”

Ruby opened the door to storage room 1 at that time. He walked down the small set of stairs, only thinking about Sapphire’s possible reactions to the decorations he purchased.

“Red, I came to rescue…” Ruby trailed off as he turned the corner and spotted Green who was glaring in his direction. “… Rescue you, Green!”

“Ruby you idiot!” Sapphire yelled as she jumped out of her cover. “You were supposed to save Green!”

Green simply sighed and Blue nervously went to hide behind the boxes like the other Dex Holders. Ruby stood dumbfounded, wondering how and why Green was in Red’s room. The Hoenn Dex Holder dropped the shopping bags, reached into his backpack and pulled out something he bought earlier. He looked at Green and offered…

“… Want a lollipop?”

Green rose to his feet and menacingly approached his junior…

1:45 pm…

The door to storage room 2 opened again, and upon hearing it, Red jumped to his feet. Before long, Pearl came into view, carrying several plastic bags.

“Green, I came to…” the Sinnoh Dex Holder trailed off when he saw Red. “… Huh?”

“Blue’s idea,” Red said. “She said that Green and I should switch rooms. She… uh… likes seeing and hearing about awkward moments, apparently.”

“Oh… Well, upon orders of Miss Lady, I’m here with lunches for those who didn’t eat yet,” Pearl said, hoisting the plastic bags in the air.

Red clapped his hands together and approached his junior. “Finally! Something to eat! Thanks, Pearl!” He patted his junior on the back and went back to his chair. “Yellow, you didn’t eat anything. So come here!” Red then looked at Silver and Emerald. “Did you two eat?” he asked. His two juniors nodded simultaneously. “Oh… Well, more for me and Yellow then!”

At the same time, Diamond opened the door to storage room 1, carrying several plastic bags packed with food. He carefully walked deep into the room and turned the corner, where he saw a strange sight.

Blue, Crystal, and Platinum were in the standard punishment position while Gold, Ruby, and Sapphire were in the standard harsh punishment position. Green stood in front, glaring at all of them. Ruby’s lollipop offer had triggered Green’s outrage… Platinum squirmed on her knees as her feet started to feel numb. Her arms were aching from holding a heavy box high above her head too. She looked to her right where Blue and Crystal were in the same predicament. But the two older girls didn’t seem to be in the same pain as the heiress.

But beside them were the three Dex Holders who were in worse pain. Sapphire grunted as her neck and head really started to hurt. She was in the push-up position, but she was supporting herself off of the floor with her head. She kept her hands on her back like she was supposed to.

Ruby grunted as he had to keep all of his shopping bags and his backpack on his back, which greatly increased the strain on his head and neck. He also grumbled about how his hat was being ruined by being pressed against the dirty floor.

Diamond silently turned around and tried to leave the room before Green noticed. But unfortunately, the Gym Leader did notice.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Green asked as he turned around. “Diamond… So, you tried to save Red too?”

Platinum perked up at the mention of Diamond. She looked past Green and spotted the Sinnoh Dex Holder. The heiress noticed that he looked _very_ nervous.

Blue silently groaned. ‘ _6:3… I should’ve known that the others would like Red a lot more than Green… Now I have to buy everyone dinner, and Green’s going to hate me!_ ’

“Well… I… uh…” Diamond stammered. He looked at the plastic bags he was carrying and remembered why he came. “Oh, right. On orders of the Lady, I’m here to deliver lunches to the Dex Holders who didn’t eat yet.”

Green looked at the Dex Holders in the punishment positions. “Who didn’t eat lunch yet?”

Sapphire managed to raise her hand. Blue and Platinum glanced at her and looked at Green. The heiress quickly avoided eye contact, however, and looked down at the floor.

“Well, I’d raise my hand,” Blue started. “But… as you can see, I already have both of my hands up in the air.” She looked at Platinum and added. “Oh, and Platinum didn’t eat anything too.”

“Then you three, come eat lunch,” Green said. “The rest of you, stay where you are.”

Sapphire sighed in relief and simply fell to her side so she could relieve the pressure to her head and neck. Blue carefully lowered the box she was holding in the air so that it doesn’t fall on her head. She placed the box on the floor in front of her and shifted to a sitting position so that blood would flow into her feet again.

Platinum’s arms started to shake, so Diamond quickly rushed to help her. He removed the box (which was _quite_ heavy) and helped the heiress get to her feet. She was unstable, as her feet were numb.

“Are you okay, Lady?” Diamond asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Platinum replied. “This was the first time I was punished… it was quite scary…”

“So…” Green started, looking at Blue. “6 of the 9 Dex Holders are here. What does this mean?”

“Um… well, this means that 6 Dex Holders tried to save Red while 3 tried to save you. So… I lost the bet and now I have to buy everyone dinner,” Blue replied.

“Celadon Eatery below the Game Corner!” Gold yelled.

Blue glared at him. “That restaurant’s expensive!”

“But the food is great!” Gold yelled again.

“Take a vote,” Green said. “Ask the others where they want to go.”

“Fine…” Blue took her Pokégear and called Yellow. After a couple of minutes, Blue hung up. “Okay, 4 of the 5 Dex Holders over there like Gold’s idea. So it’s 5:2 in favor of Celadon Eatery.”

Platinum raised a hand. “It is 5:3, now.”

“Thanks Platinum. Anyone else?”

Sapphire raised a hand. “6:3!”

Ruby raised a hand. “7:3!”

“Ha! Majority wins!” Gold yelled.

‘ _Ah, darn it…_ ’ “… Fine, you win!” Blue said after a sigh. ‘ _I can’t afford to pay for everyone’s dinner! There’s only one thing I can do… But I’ll have to wait until no one’s looking…_ ’

2:10 pm…

All 13 Dex Holders gathered outside the Celadon City Department Store. All the Dex Holders who tried to save Red stood with the Kanto champion except Crystal, who stood between Red and Green. But those who tried to save Green didn’t stand with the Gym Leader. Pearl stood with Diamond and Platinum, Silver stood beside Blue, and Emerald stood beside Crystal. Red and Green still had the fake bombs attached to them. The bombs were strapped on with locks, and needed a special key to unlock them.

“Uh… Blue, can we remove the fake bombs now?” Red asked.

“Well… I’ll remove yours but… not Green’s,” Blue replied nervously. She pulled out a key from her bag and removed the fake bomb on Red.

“Why won’t you remove my fake bomb?” Green asked.

Sensing Green’s anger rising, Sapphire and Platinum exchanged looks. Platinum kneeled in front of the Gym Leader and clasped her hands together while Sapphire hugged him from behind.

“Please forgive us,” the heiress said as cutely as she could manage.

“Yes, we promise we’ll be very good to you,” Sapphire added.

At that time, Yellow reached into her pocket and withdrew what looked like a remote. “Do I get to use this now?” she asked Blue.

Blue’s eyes opened wide in shock. “Everyone, get away from Green!” she yelled as she hastily ran away.

Everyone except Green, Sapphire, and Platinum ran away while the remaining three appeared confused. While running, Yellow pressed a button on the remote. The fake bomb on Green emitted a single beep before it exploded, covering Green, Platinum, and Sapphire in foul smelling liquid.

Platinum shrieked as the mystery liquid drenched her from head to toe. She tried to wipe away the stuff from her face, but it was rather difficult.

“Hey, what the hell?!” Sapphire yelled. “Is this… Gastro Acid?!”

Green simply stood there, fuming with rage. A few seconds later, he snapped.

“That’s it! EVERYONE DIES!” he roared.

He sent out his Charizard, Golduck, and Scizor. With Golduck’s help, he washed the Gastro Acid off of him. Once he was clean of the foul smelling acid, he jumped onto Charizard and began his Dex Holder hunt. On his list was… Blue, Gold, Crystal, and Ruby. He decided to forgive Platinum and Sapphire, as they were also affected by the Gastro Acid, and Diamond, because he was acting on Platinum’s orders and brought lunch.

Blue glanced back and could see Green on his Charizard, chasing after her. She looked at the other Dex Holders.

“I’ll meet you all in front of Celadon Eatery at 6! I’ll see you later!” she yelled as she sent out her Wigglytuff. She wouldn’t be able to outrun Green’s Charizard, but she was going to try.

Red and Yellow simply watched as Green and his Charizard chased Blue and her Wigglytuff.

“So…” Red started. “Do you think Blue will escape Green’s wrath this time?”

“I don’t know,” Yellow replied. “But I’m sure glad that I won the bet. It means that you’re that much nicer to the other Dex Holders than Green.”

Red laughed. “Well, I don’t know about that.” He looked over to the Gastro Acid bomb’s blast site and saw Sapphire trying to spit out the acid that went into her mouth and Platinum still on her knees, rubbing her eyes. “Come on, let’s go help them,” he said. He sent out his Poliwrath and ran over to the two girls.

Yellow smiled and with her Omastar’s Pokéball in hand, ran to catch up. “Yes… you are much nicer…”


	3. Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on December 7, 2011.
> 
> The next chapter will have a bit of time skip. So far, the first 3 chapters of the original SR has made it to the Ao3 re-release. But the next few chapters will be cut.

Chapter 3: Revenge

Green sat on the couch in his living room, watching the news. It seemed that the _only_ thing the news reporters had to report on was about how the president of a Pokémon Talent Agency was seeking to expand her horizons to other entertainment branches. Green shut off the television. He might as well watch Platinum training with Red and Crystal outside. It was a lot better than hearing about some Pokémon Talent Agency in some other region. But just then, the Kanto champion entered the house.

“Hey, Green,” he said as he approached the Gym Leader. “Did you know that we are the _only_ ones who went through the Three Paths in Cape Brink of Two Island to learn the ultimate moves?”

“I thought Gold and Crystal went through the paths,” Green said.

“Apparently not. Crys said that because we damaged the Battle Path, she and Gold did other _easier_ training methods.”

“… That old hag…” Green looked at Red. “… You know what this means, don’t you?”

The Kanto champion nodded. “Yep.”

The two Kanto Dex Holders left the house and could see Platinum talking to Crystal while resting on the ground.

“… PLATINUM!” the two Kanto Dex Holders yelled in unison.

The heiress jumped in surprise and hastily got back to her feet. She found her seniors and quickly ran towards them. Crystal followed, wondering why Red and Green yelled all of a sudden.

“Yes, seniors?” Platinum said as she came close. She nervously looked back and forth between both of her seniors. They sounded rather angry, and the heiress began to fear whether she did something wrong. “How may I help?”

“We are going to take you someplace where we can train you,” Red said.

“This training will allow your Empoleon to use Hydro Cannon,” Green added.

Platinum gasped in shock. She clasped her hands together and began to jump up and down. “Oh, thank you so much!” she exclaimed. “I have been waiting so long for this opportunity!”

“It’s true,” Crystal said. “She asked me whether I could teach her Empoleon the ultimate move, and I said it was your decision to make.”

“Yeah, well… I think you’re ready,” Red said as he looked at Platinum.

“But what about Diamond and Pearl?” the heiress asked. “If my Empoleon learns Hydro Cannon, should not Diamond’s Torterra and Pearl’s Infernape learn Frenzy Plant and Blast Burn?”

“Well, yes, but they’re in Sinnoh right now. You’re up first,” Green said.

“Where are you going to teach her?” Crystal asked. “Mt. Silver? Here? At the Viridian Gym?”

“Cape Brink of Two Island,” Green replied.

“Cape Brink? … Well, I suppose you need those metal rings if you’re going to teach those moves…” Crystal muttered.

“Oh, we’ll need more than that,” Red said in a wicked way.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Crystal asked. Suddenly a thought occurred and her two seniors suddenly appeared… _evil_. “Wait… Are you two going to make Platinum go through the Three Paths?”

Green nodded. Platinum appeared confused.

“What are the Three Paths?” the heiress asked.

“But… why?” Crystal asked, ignoring Platinum’s question for the time being. “You don’t need to go through the Three Paths to learn the ultimate moves.”

“I know,” Red said. “But we’re going to take her through the Three Paths anyways.”

“And guess what?” Green said, looking at Crystal ominously.

“Wh – What?”

“You’re coming with us,” Red answered instead.

“Wait, what?! But Megapeon already knows Frenzy Plant!” Crystal argued. “Why do I need to go?”

“You know that the Three Paths need two people. Someone is going to have to train with Platinum, and seeing how Red and I need to supervise her training, you will have to be her training partner,” Green said calmly.

“Oh… … this is just not fair…” Crystal grumbled.

“You sound just like Gold…” Green said as he narrowed his eyes. “If I recall, that was exactly what he said when he chose to rescue Red instead of me a few days ago. You remember that day, don’t you?” he asked. He was now glaring at her. “You were there with him.” He lightened his expression as he looked at Platinum. “You were there too.”

The heiress flinched and avoided eye contact with Green. Red put a hand on her bare shoulder. “Thanks for trying to save me, by the way. And don’t worry. Green’s not angry at you,” he said warmly. Platinum looked into her senior’s eyes and smiled.

“What about me?” Crystal asked Red.

Red’s expression darkened. “You… I was expecting you to save Green. You betrayed his trust. I expected more from you,” he said rather coldly. “That was disappointing.”

“Oh, come on!” Crystal yelled. “How can you say that you’re disappointed when I tried to save you?!”

“And now you’re raising your voice at me?”

Crystal instantly fell silent. She sighed and looked down. “Fine…” ‘ _Next time something like that happens, I’m not saving anyone!_ ’

Within two hours, the four Dex Holders were on a ship heading towards Two Island. Though Platinum was excited about finally learning the ultimate move, Crystal simply stared into the horizon in resignation. She had been warned. If she tried to escape, she would be doomed.

“Senior Crystal, what are the Three Paths?” Platinum asked again.

“… It’s over 3 km of pain…” Crystal replied. “The Three Paths are divided into the Skip Path, Catch Path, and the Battle Path. Each path is over a kilometer long and the floor moves backwards… Well, except for the Battle Path. The floor moves forward in there.”

Crystal proceeded to explain the mechanics of the Three Paths. Platinum’s expression darkened after each of her senior’s sentence.

“A – And… seniors Red and Green want _me_ to go through the paths?”

“And me too, apparently,” Crystal said with a sigh. “I mean… why do I have to go? This is just torture! Apparently, there was someone a long, long time ago that took 8 hours to get through the Skip Path…”

Platinum shuddered at the thought of running for over 8 hours. “I certainly hope that that does not happen to us…”

3 hours later, the Dex Holders arrived at Two Island. Red went ahead to Cape Brink so that he may borrow/snatch/steal/take the metal ring required to teach Platinum Hydro Cannon while Green stayed behind to ensure that the two younger Dex Holders did not attempt to flee.

“How many of our seniors went through the Three Paths?” Platinum asked Crystal silently.

“Just two,” Crystal replied equally quietly. “Red and Green. I think that’s the reason why we’re here. They want the others to suffer like they did.”

“But… how did all of the others learn the ultimate moves?” the heiress asked.

Crystal thought for a second. “Blue… just trained and learned. Gold and I… also just trained. The training itself took two months in total, but it was more stretched out and lightly paced. Silver… just watched. It took him… 5 minutes?”

“Senior Silver took 5 minutes to learn Hydro Cannon?” Platinum asked in shock.

“Somehow… it took me over a month… Gold took two months straight. He’s… a slow learner.” Crystal suddenly looked a little nervous. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

“Of course.”

“Anyways… Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald didn’t take that long to learn the ultimate moves. I think it took them less than an hour.”

“Enough chitchat,” Green said from behind. “You two need to prepare for the Three Paths ahead. It would be a shame if you were to mess up.”

Crystal sighed. “I… guess you’re right.”

She began to stretch her legs and prepared to do some warm-up exercises. Platinum simply stood there for a second before she joined her senior.

Before long, Red returned with the required ring and a jump rope for the Skip Path. Platinum looked at him rather anxiously. She didn’t like the idea of going through the Three Paths, but at least she was going to finally learn Hydro Cannon. Crystal, on the other hand, simply looked at Red with despair. To her, it was just plain torture.

“All right, let’s get going,” the Kanto champion said.

Within a few minutes, Crystal found herself on the Skip Path with Platinum, waiting for the signal to start running and skipping. To her right, her Meganium stood, wondering why exactly it was being forced to go through the Three Paths. It kept one end of the skipping rope in its mouth while Platinum’s Empoleon was holding on to the other end. Platinum looked straight ahead, trying to see the end of the Skip Path. Running and skipping for roughly 1.1 km wasn’t hard. But running and skipping while the floor moved backwards (at around 80% of Platinum’s running speed) wasn’t easy…

The two ‘evil’ Dex Holders were on their aerial transport Pokémon so that they could reach the end of the Skip Path _very_ easily.

“Okay, START!” Green yelled all of a sudden.

The two girls jumped in surprise and almost lost balance as the floor started to move backwards. The Meganium and Empoleon hastily started to run while swinging the jump rope. Platinum and Crystal started to run, but were unsteady. It didn’t take long before the heiress tripped over the rope and hit the floor. As per the rules, the two girls had to restart the Skip Path.

But this time, the two girls were perfectly steady. Within an hour, they were almost near the end of the Skip Path. Red and Green glanced at each other. They had to do something…

Red suddenly sneezed, as loud as he could possibly manage. Crystal jumped in surprise and soon lost balance. Platinum was just about to jump off of the moving floor when Crystal tripped and fell onto the floor.

“Senior…” the heiress gasped out.

“… Sorry…” Crystal said between breaths. “But… Red… … never mind…”

…

Attempt 3…

…

Platinum and Crystal were (again) almost near the end of the Skip Path. They were absolutely exhausted, but at least the end was near… But once again, the two ‘evil’ Dex Holders did their best to thwart the two girls’ attempt at the Skip Path. Red had his Aerodactyl Fly straight towards the wall and had it quickly turn to avoid collision.

“Whoa! Aero! Watch where you’re going!” Red yelled, pretending to scold his Aerodactyl. “We almost hit the wall headfirst!”

This time, Platinum looked over at Red, wondering what happened. In the split second it took her to remember her predicament, she tripped…

“Back to the beginning with you two,” Green said from the side.

Crystal appeared as if she wanted to strangle Red for making Platinum trip. “Why… why are you…”

“Sorry, Crys,” Red said with a laugh. “But Aero got distracted and… it wasn’t my fault!”

Crystal sat on the floor and tried to catch her breath. Beside her, Platinum was lying on the floor, panting heavily. Crystal looked at her two evil seniors.

“Can we take a short break at least?”

“Three minutes,” Red said after a short moment of thought.

Crystal groaned, but tried to rest as much as possible in the 3 minutes. She looked at Red and realized that the Kanto champion could be very evil.

“Are you going to make Dia and Pearl go through the Three Paths?”

“Of course,” Red replied.

“With others, or at the same time?”

“With others,” Green answered.

“Please make Gold go through this,” Crystal begged. “He deserves this kind of thing.”

“Sure, why not. We’ll make Dia go through the Three Paths with Gold, and Pearl can go with Blue,” Red said.

“What about Ruby, Sapphire, and the others?” Crystal asked.

“They learned the ultimate moves during a crisis. But you, Gold, and Blue didn’t have a giant water monster about to kill everyone when you learned the ultimate moves,” Green said. “As such, you are Platinum’s training partner, Gold is Diamond’s, and Blue will be Pearl’s.”

“You’re going to make Blue go through the Three Paths? How are you going to do that?” Crystal asked.

“We’ll ask her nicely,” Red said. “And if she says no, then _you’ll_ have to be Pearl’s training partner.”

Crystal groaned again. “Why do you hate me so much?”

“It’s not that we hate you. It’s just that you were the only one who betrayed our trust.”

Crystal sighed and shook her head. “Fine… whatever…”

…

Attempt 4…

…

Luckily, the two evil Dex Holders did not try to thwart the girls’ attempt at completing the Skip Path. Crystal and Platinum were absolutely exhausted, but they did reach the end of the path after an hour. The two girls slowly left the Skip Path and entered the Catch Path. Their feet and legs hurt after attempting the Skip Path for 3 hours straight. But luckily for them, the Catch Path didn’t require running, as they would be riding on Dodrios… or so they thought.

“Where are the Dodrios?” Crystal asked. The Catch Path was completely empty other than the four Dex Holders and their Pokémon.

“I don’t know. Well, if the Dodrios aren’t here, then we’ll just have to go without them,” Green said. “Crystal, ride your Meganium. Platinum, ride your Rapidash, but have your Empoleon follow you.”

The girls did as told and the attempt at completing the Catch Path began. But this time, the girls had absolutely no problem with catching all the falling berries. To Crystal, the falling berries felt quite similar to her training sessions that involved numerous Pokéballs falling all around her. All she had to do was catch them instead of kicking them. As for Platinum, the falling berries felt near identical to the slot machines and the Battle Arcade’s roulette. Her eyes darted between the falling berries and her hands moved to catch the berries that her eyes had locked on to a split second ago. The two evil Dex Holders watched, impressed by their juniors’ hand-eye coordination and reflexes.

The Catch Path ended without anything bad happening to Crystal and Platinum. Half an hour after starting the Catch Path, the two girls arrived at the Battle Path. As the purpose of going through the Three Paths (apart from torturing Crystal) was to let Platinum learn Hydro Cannon, the heiress was ordered to only use her Empoleon. Crystal was ordered to only use her Meganium and avoid using Frenzy Plant.

Crystal knew that Platinum would lose in a straight battle, so she ordered her Meganium to focus on defense. As the two girls proceeded with the Battle Path, Platinum quickly became excited at the thought of finally learning Hydro Cannon. Despite being completely exhausted, she ran as fast as she could manage while constantly ordering her Empoleon to attack.

By the end of the path, the two girls were running neck and neck. They both stepped off of the moving floor simultaneously and approached the finish line (the end wall). But Crystal was slightly ahead of Platinum, and at the speed they were running, she would reach the finish line before the heiress. Now Platinum was supposed to reach the finish line first, and since she was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion and thus couldn’t possibly run any faster, Crystal had to slow down.

Red and Green stood at the finish line, watching their two juniors. They weren’t going to try to thwart the girls’ attempt at the Battle Path, but if Platinum did not reach the end first, then as per rules, both Platinum and Crystal had to restart from the very beginning. Following the ‘rule’ involving the Three Paths, Red and Green were only going to teach whoever reached the finish line first.

Then it happened…

As Crystal tried to slow down, she started to stumble. Her legs felt too heavy from running for so long… A few steps away from the finish line, she tripped. Platinum saw her senior fall and quickly jumped to the side to avoid accidentally kicking or stepping on her. When Crystal hit the ground, because of her momentum, she rolled forward and hit the wall. Platinum reached the wall half a second later.

“… Crys wins!” Red said from beside.

Platinum dropped to the ground, trying to catch her breath. Crystal tried to get to her feet, but her legs wouldn’t move. She simply looked at her seniors in despair.

“As per rules, you two will have to restart the entire challenge,” Green said from behind.

Crystal looked at him and reached for him as if she wanted to grab him by the collar of his shirt. “Green… stop this… I can’t run anymore… I can’t run anymore!”

“Seniors…” Platinum gasped out. “I do not think I am ready for the ultimate move…”

Red and Green looked at each other.

“What do you think?” Green asked.

“I think they had enough for today,” Red replied. He headed towards the door at the corner of the Battle Path and signaled his two juniors to follow.

Crystal and Platinum struggled up to their feet and staggered after their senior. Once they were outside, the two girls dropped onto the ground again. Red reached down and removed the metal ring from Platinum’s wrist. Afterwards, he sent out his Poliwrath. His two juniors were drenched in sweat, so he was going to help them a little. Green sent out his Golduck and helped.

Red pulled out a couple of water bottles from his bag and gave them to his juniors. Crystal sat up and took a drink from the bottle as Red’s Poliwrath gently doused her with a weak Water Gun. Platinum removed her hair clips and hat as Green’s Golduck soaked her with a very weak Hydro Pump.

“You two are very cruel…” Crystal muttered. “Even now, you’re not helping us.”

“What do you mean?” Red asked.

“We don’t have spare clothes, or coats, or even towels, and you’re soaking us,” Crystal replied. “And it’s nighttime!”

Red looked up at the sky and he then noticed that the sky was quite dark. “Oh… … Oh well…”

A few minutes later, the four Dex Holders headed to the harbor. While walking, Red noticed that Platinum and Crystal were shivering. The Kanto champion took off his vest and put it on Platinum. The heiress looked surprised. She bowed to her senior in gratitude and zipped up the vest. Crystal silently grumbled and rubbed her arms to try to fight the cold.

5 hours later, the four Dex Holders arrived in Vermillion City. The two Kanto Dex Holders turned to look at their juniors.

“Tell you what,” Red started. “If you two help us force every other Dex Holder to go through the Three Paths, then we’ll teach Hydro Cannon without making you two go through the Three Paths again.”

“Except Yellow,” Green added. “She doesn’t qualify for this, as she doesn’t have a Pokémon that can learn Frenzy Plant, Blast Burn, or Hydro Cannon.”

“I may be able to convince Diamond and Pearl, but I do not wish to get my seniors to go through the Three Paths,” Platinum said.

“Getting just Dia and Pearl is fine,” Red said. “We’ll get Blue to go with Pearl, Gold with Dia, Silver with Emerald, and Ruby with Sapphire. Platinum, if you can get Dia and Pearl to agree, then I can get Sapphire, and she can get Ruby. Crys, you’ll have to get Gold and Emerald. And we’ll all force Blue and Silver to agree.”

“If… if I do get Gold and Emerald to come, then will you forgive me?” Crystal asked.

“Yes,” Green replied. “We’ll pretend that your betrayal during the whole fake bomb incident never happened.”

Crystal sighed. “Then I’m in…”

“Good. Now, go get some rest. We’ll form a plan tomorrow,” Green said. “Because Diamond, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire are not in Kanto or Johto, we’ll have to get Silver and Emerald tomorrow.”

Red and Green sent out their aerial transport Pokémon so that they may return home. Platinum returned Red’s vest and bowed to her seniors. Crystal simply sighed and thought of how she was going to convince Emerald to go through the Three Paths, and how he would look at her afterwards. She decided that she would simply tell him the truth; Red and Green were evil, and they wanted to get every Dex Holder to suffer through the Three Paths. Hopefully no one would tell on her and Red and Green will not hear about it.


	4. Babysitting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally uploaded on July 31, 2012. It's chapter 9 in the other site's SR story.

Chapter 4: Babysitting

Violet City, 3 pm…

“Emerald! Be careful!” Crystal yelled.

But the 10th Dex Holder didn’t heed her warning and accidentally knocked a Pokémon egg off the table. Crystal hastily jumped forward and caught the egg before it hit the floor. The girl herself hit the floor hard from the jump, but the egg was safe.

“Nice catch, Crystal,” Emerald said as he approached his senior. “Too bad, though.”

“Huh?” Crystal looked at the egg and noticed that it was… a fake. It was _plastic_. As she sat fuming, Gold came from behind and gave Emerald a high five. Crystal threw the fake egg to the floor and jumped to her feet. “Gold! Stop encouraging Emerald like this!”

“Whoa, Crys! There was a real egg in there!” Gold yelled out with a horrified expression.

“Oh no!” Crystal screamed and knelt beside the smashed plastic egg. Seeing her expression, Gold and Emerald burst into laughter.

“He got you good! There’s no egg in there!” Emerald said.

Crystal’s eyes twitched as she slowly rose to her feet. ‘ _Blood pressure… skyrocketing!_ ’ “Why you…” she growled through clenched teeth as she glared daggers at Gold. Before she could maul/murder him, her Pokégear started to ring. After taking several deep breaths to calm her anger, she answered.

As she talked, Gold and Emerald began whispering to one another. Crystal grabbed a notepad from a desk and whacked Gold on the back of the head with it. Soon, she hung up and let out another sigh. But it was a sigh of relief, Gold noticed. Crystal called someone else on her Pokégear and told the person on the other side to come over quickly.

“Hey Crys, who called you, and who’d you call?” Gold asked once Crystal hung up again.

Crystal massaged her temples to soothe a headache and looked at Gold and Emerald. “Gold, Emerald, I have to go to Blackthorn City to catch something. But because you two need to stay at my house to work on a research project and I can’t leave you guys alone, I called someone to come here and look after you.”

“You mean… a babysitter?” Emerald asked. “Crystal, I never thought you’d treat me like a baby!”

“I’m not. I didn’t before, I don’t now, and I won’t ever treat you like that. I could leave _you_ alone, but not with Gold.”

“Hey, what the hell! Super Serious Gal, are you saying that you can’t trust me to keep Odd Boy in check?”

“I’m not worried about Emerald. I’m worried about _you_! Anyways, I would’ve called Green over, but he’s busy. And not to mention he’ll just think this to be absurd, which it kind of is.”

“So who did you call over?”

“Platinum. I could have picked Blue or Yellow, but with Blue sick and Yellow gone away with Red, Platinum’s all that’s left. She’s perfect for the job, though. She’s been helping me take care of the orphans in Earl’s Academy, so she’ll know what to do with a little child such as you, Gold.”

“You’re going to get someone who’s younger than both of us to babysit us? Don’t you think that she’ll just obey our orders instead?” Gold asked.

“No, because she’ll be listening to _my_ orders,” Crystal replied with a smug look. “Not to mention the Dex Holder Pecking Order. Remember that poll you filled out a couple of weeks ago?”

“Yeah.”

“We gathered all those results and compiled them into the very first, 100% accurate Dex Holder Pecking Order. First it goes you, Emerald, Black, Pearl, Dia, Sapphire, White, Platinum, Ruby, Silver, me, Yellow, Red, Green, and Blue on top.”

“What the hell? I’m on the bottom?” Gold yelled out. “That’s just bull-”

“And that’s why you’re on the bottom. Anyways, Platinum will listen to my orders, and I specifically told her to ignore whatever orders you two give. And besides, you two should listen to her orders regardless. You’re just lucky that Platinum’s nice enough to not enforce the Pecking Order.”

Before long, Platinum arrived and Crystal began to give her instructions. As she did so, the two boys watched from behind, constantly grumbling.

“This is so damn humiliating,” Emerald muttered.

“Especially for me…” Gold said with a sigh.

Emerald suddenly grinned. “Hey,” he whispered to Gold as he kept his eyes on Platinum. “Want to drive her crazy? It’d be fun.”

Gold thought for a second before he grinned as well. “Let’s roll. This’ll teach those who want to babysit us.”

As Platinum bowed farewell to Crystal outside the house, Gold and Emerald got busy. They hit the kitchen and took several ice cubes and began… _decorating_ the floor directly in front of the door. Within a minute, Platinum entered the house and immediately slipped on the iced floor. It was a good thing she wasn’t wearing a skirt like normal, or it would have been a lot more embarrassing. Taking an advice from Crystal, the heiress chose to wear a sleeveless black shirt and matching tight shorts. Obviously, a skirt wasn’t suitable when dealing with little kids at the orphanage.

Platinum shrieked in surprise and landed on her back. Gold and Emerald appeared from their hiding places, clearly satisfied with the result. Platinum rose to her knees and tried her best to wipe away the water on her shorts and socks.

“Seniors, could you please clean this up?” she asked politely.

Gold looked over at Emerald and gave various hand signals. Though Platinum wouldn’t understand, the Hoenn Dex Holder would have understood perfectly. Emerald walked over to the iced floor and purposely stepped on an ice cube. He slipped as planned and ‘accidentally’ fell onto Platinum, knocking her down.

“Oops, sorry,” Emerald said with a fake apologetic look.

“Ugh… senior, please be careful next time.”

Gold and Emerald soon cleaned up the mess they created and while Platinum wiped away the water that got on her, the two troublemakers plotted something else. Within a minute, Platinum got out of the washroom and the moment she did, a bucket of water fell on her. She shrieked in surprise (and little anger) and tried to wipe the water out of her eyes.

“Sorry, we were using that for…” Gold started. “Uh… cleaning. Yeah. Cleaning. The bucket was a little heavy for Odd Boy and he lost balance.”

Emerald glared at his senior for shifting the blame. But regardless, he gave his junior something to wipe her face. Platinum took it and noticed that it felt rather rough. But she trusted her seniors and tried to use it to wipe away the water. But the moment the ‘towel’ touched her face, she winced and pulled back. She opened her eyes and through the water in her eyes, she could see…

“Sand paper?” Platinum looked at her seniors in disbelief. “Seniors, how could you?”

“Sorry. I can’t feel those kinds of things,” Emerald answered. “Fake hands, remember.”

“Hey, I’m getting hungry. Platinum, can you make us something to eat?” Gold asked. “I’m sure Crys banned me and Odd Boy from using the toaster or oven or practically anything.”

Platinum sighed. “Yes, senior. Seniors, please go over to the dinner table and wait. I shall prepare something after I clean up.”

Platinum did her best to wipe away as much water as she could. She entered the washroom once more, locked the door shut and then proceeded to squeeze out as much water as possible from her clothes. She didn’t have a spare set of clothes, so she had no choice but to put her clothes back on and hope they dry on their own.

As she began to clean up the puddle of water created by her two troublemaker seniors, the heiress began to understand why Crystal always said that Gold and Emerald put together was an absolute nightmare. Platinum had been babysitting her two seniors for five minutes now and already they were driving her crazy. She sighed in despair as her seniors started to complain about being starving.

By the time Platinum finished cleaning up, she had a big headache. She entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. To make things even worse, there was hardly any food in there. The best she could do was a single bowl of rice and a single side dish consisting of sliced berries.

“This is it?” Gold asked. “This sucks!”

Platinum appeared a little embarrassed and even ashamed. “I apologize, seniors, but this was the best I could do. Senior Crystal may be able to produce better quality food, but…”

“Eh, whatever. It can’t be helped,” Gold said as he took the bowl of rice and the side dish all to himself.

“Hey, I’m hungry too!” Emerald yelled as he took the bowl and plate from his senior.

Much to Platinum’s dismay, her two seniors started to argue. She simply put a hand over her face and decided to wait, but the argument escalated to the point where she had no choice but to intervene. She decided that splitting the rice and sliced berries into two equal segments and was about to carry out her plan when Gold spoke.

“How about this? We play a game of rock-papers-scissors. The winner of each round gets exactly one spoonful of rice and one slice of berry. Then the winner gets to put wooden chopsticks on the loser’s forehead, pull one end back and far as possible and flick him with it. If the loser doesn’t make a sound, then we move on to the next round. But if he does make a sound, then the winner gets another spoonful and slice. How’s that?”

“Deal!” Emerald yelled out.

Platinum sighed in relief that her two seniors found a way to… coexist and share. But unfortunately, things weren’t as calm as she expected…

The winner of the first round was Gold and as the agreement, he took a spoonful of rice and a slice of berry. But the spoonful was an understatement.

“Hey! You call that a single spoonful?” Emerald demanded. “That’s like a fifth of the bowl!”

“What? That’s my single spoonful! Deal with it!”

Platinum groaned and walked over to the couch in the living room so that she may lie down. She now had a severe headache thanks to her two seniors. Gold and Emerald watched her and silently gave each other a high five. The food game continued and the two continued arguing at every single round. Platinum kept her hands over her ears to avoid listening (and thereby getting stressed), but eventually, she snapped. She ran into the washroom and began to cry. Hearing their junior cry, Gold and Emerald fell silent.

“Do you think we went too far?” Emerald asked in a whisper.

“Maybe. Super Serious Gal’s going to kill us now,” Gold replied. “Hold on. I’ll go talk to her.”

Inside the washroom, while _pretending_ to cry, Platinum was filling up the bucket from earlier with hot water. It wasn’t at scalding temperature, but it would still hurt. She figured that she wouldn’t be able to stop her two seniors from being delinquents. So if she couldn’t beat them, then she’d _join_ them.

Before long, the bucket was filled and someone had knocked on the door. In a sniffling voice, she told her senior to come in and the moment the door opened and Gold appeared, she dumped the content of the bucket on top of him. She quickly began to refill the bucket, this time with ice cold water.

“Ow, that’s hot! Platinum, what the hell!” Gold yelled out. To his surprise, the heiress was grinning and laughing at him.

Soon, Emerald came as well, wondering what the commotion was about. The moment he appeared in the doorway, Platinum dumped the ice cold water on him. The heiress laughed at her two seniors and carelessly dropped the bucket on the washroom floor. Gold and Emerald glared at her, but she seemed unfazed.

“Oh, _deal with it_ ,” Platinum sneered. She stuck her tongue out at them and headed back towards the dinner table. Her two seniors followed her and sat in their seats. “Well?” Platinum said as she extended her fist. “Are we going to continue the game or not?”

“You’re on!” Gold yelled.

The three Dex Holders played the food game and Platinum won the round. With a rather sinister grin, she took her share of food and flicked her two seniors on the forehead as hard as she could possibly manage with the wooden chopsticks. And she angled her attacks so that the corner of the chopsticks would hit her two seniors.

“Ow! Hey, not so hard!” Emerald yelled. “And don’t use the corners!”

“Oh, stop being such a _baby_ , senior Emerald!” Platinum yelled back. “And since you made a sound, I believe I get another spoonful and slice!”

…

Several hours later…

…

Crystal opened the door to her house along with Diamond, who had come for Platinum. Upon looking at the mess inside, Crystal’s mouth opened in shock. Gold, Emerald, and Platinum were all playing mindless games (such as pinching each other on the arm as hard as possible without breaking free) and laughing as if they were all insane.

“Oh no…” Crystal muttered.

“What is it?” Diamond asked from behind. “Did something happen to the Lady?”

Crystal closed her eyes and groaned. “She’s become one of them…”

* * *

Post Ending:

One week later…

“Gold, Emerald,” Crystal said as she approached the two troublemakers once more.

“What?”

“White called me and said that she wants me to teach her how to catch Pokémon. Which means, once again, I have to call someone over to watch over you.”

“Oh, let him or her come. You saw what happened to Platinum last week,” Emerald said with a grin.

“I know,” Crystal said with a sigh. “We fixed her good, though. Anyways, it wasn’t easy, but I managed to get-” A loud knock on the door interrupted her and she grinned. “He’s here.”

Crystal opened the door and instantly, Gold and Emerald fell silent. They glanced at each other and then looked at their babysitter in despair. The babysitter wasn’t a Dex Holder, so there was no way the two troublemakers could rely on fondness to avoid punishment. The man in the doorway had Magnetons on either shoulder and had his ‘patented’ Voltorb/Electrode grenade launcher on his back.

“All right, maggots!” Lt. Surge yelled while maintaining full combat stance. “Let’s get to work.”


	5. Horror Park

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay.
> 
> This chapter was first uploaded on September 22, 2012

Chapter 5: Horror Park

“Oh, this is so exciting!”

“Get ready to be surprised, Miss President. Our seniors are apparently known for throwing great birthday parties.”

Black and White approached the large table set up in the center of Nimbasa City’s amusement park. Platinum had rented the entire amusement park after its closing hours for the president’s birthday party. It cost quite a bit and the birthday party was doubled as a welcoming party too. The other Dex Holders were finally welcoming Black and White into their _prestigious_ group.

Currently, every Dex Holder except Red, Green, and Sapphire were gathered at the table. Apparently, those three have yet to arrive from their training trip to Dragonspiral Tower.

White glanced at her watch/Xtransceiver. It was currently 6:30 pm. She hoped that the three late Dex Holders would arrive soon so the party could officially begin.

But the three missing Dex Holders didn’t show up. After an hour of waiting, Blue tried calling the three.

“Well, it looks like they won’t make it here,” she said after hanging up.

“Why?” White asked.

“They said that something very urgent had come up. I don’t know what they mean exactly, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to come.”

“Oh… So… can we start the party now?”

Blue smiled. “Of course. Red, Green, and Sapphire won’t know what they’re missing, but they’ll wish they were here when they hear how great this party is!”

“All right!” Black exclaimed. “But… it’s getting kind of dark…”

“That’s okay. It only makes the games that much more interesting,” Blue said dismissively. “The first game is a scavenger hunt! Yellow and I hid a total of 13 specially marked Pokéballs around the amusement park. The person who collects the most within an hour will be the winner. But you must return the Pokéball here to completely claim it. Which means, on the way here, you better make sure someone else doesn’t steal it!”

“How are we going to find them in an hour?” White asked. “This place is kind of… big.”

“We only hid them in specific locations,” Yellow replied. She handed everyone a map of the amusement park. “We’ve circled the facilities where we hid the Pokéballs and wrote how many we hid there. This should help you find them quickly.”

“All right, start searching!” Blue yelled out abruptly.

White quickly ran towards the nearest circled facility. The nearest was actually the Ferris Wheel, but White ignored that one and went to the second nearest, the Merry Go Round. Black ran with her and didn’t say anything about her choice, as he knew perfectly well that White didn’t like being anywhere near the Ferris Wheel after a certain incident a year ago.

“Miss President, I’ll help you find them,” Black said as he followed White towards the Merry Go Round. “It’s your birthday after all. I’ll help you win.”

White nodded and excitedly began her search. She had no idea what the other games will be about, but she had no doubt that this birthday would be the best one she ever had, where nothing could _possibly_ go wrong…

Half an hour later, Black and White approached the starting point of the scavenger hunt, with 3 of the 13 specially marked Pokéballs. They put it in the small bin labeled as ‘White’ to claim the 3. White was about to head towards another marked facility when Black noticed something odd.

“Miss President… where are Blue and Yellow?”

White took a looked around. “Huh… you’re right. Where’d they go? Weren’t they supposed to stay here?”

“Maybe they went to get something to eat,” Black suggested.

“You’re probably right. Well, come on, Black. Let’s go look for more.”

The two Unova Dex Holders were about to run towards the closest non-Ferris Wheel facility when they heard something: a terrified scream.

“That sounded like Blue,” Black said with an alarmed look.

“Let’s go find her,” White said worriedly.

The two Unova Dex Holders ran towards the source of the scream, which turned out to be coming from… the Ghost House, also known as the House of Horror. Blue came from the exit, looking horror stricken but otherwise perfectly fine.

“Wow… I didn’t think it was _that_ scary,” she muttered as she took a shuddering breath.

White sighed in relief. “I was worried there for a second, you know,” she said to Blue. “I thought something terrible happened.”

“No, there’s no chance of that,” Blue said. But before she even finished, a loud, pained scream interrupted her. “That sounded like Crys…”

“Is there another scary facility here?” Black asked.

Blue shook her head. “No… That means…”

The three Dex Holders hastily ran towards the source of the scream, which was the rollercoaster. It wasn’t in service, which meant there would be no reason to scream…

“Do you see her anywhere?” White asked as she quickly looked for her senior.

Blue looked up and instantly appeared horrified. She put a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. “Oh no… Crys…”

The two Unova Dex Holders looked up and froze. Crystal was hanging upside down from the rollercoaster rail by a long length of rope tied around her ankles, with blood dripping from her body. White put a hand over her mouth. Black quickly embraced her and gently spun her around so that she wouldn’t see her senior’s corpse hanging like that. But it seemed that Crystal wasn’t the only victim…

“Gold…” White muttered in horror.

Black and Blue turned to look at what White was seeing and soon found Gold impaled by his billiard cue into a tall tree high above the ground.

“Wh – What is happening?” Blue muttered. “How did this happen?”

“We have to find the others right now and make sure nothing happens to them,” Black said from the side.

White trembled but nodded. She looked at the map she was given. The closest marked facility from the rollercoaster was the movie theatre. But as the three Dex Holders ran, they came across another victim. Yellow was lying face down on the grass, beside a puddle of her own blood. Blue quickly ran over to check her friend’s condition.

Before the Kanto Dex Holder could reach her fallen friend, a dark figure dropped from on top of a tree and began to choke her. White stood, frozen in fear, as the assailant proceeded to kill Blue. The Kanto Dex Holder tried to free herself, but to no avail. Black quickly rushed to assist but before he could do anything, the assailant jerked the arm choking Blue. The girl twitched once before going completely limp. White shrieked in terror, realizing that her senior’s neck had been snapped.

The assailant made a run towards White and the girl quickly fled. Black followed so that he may protect her. Luckily, the assailant didn’t pursue White for long and vanished into the shadows of trees.

White stopped running two minutes after ensuring that she wasn’t being followed by the murderer. Before her legs could rest and her mind process what exactly happened, her eyes spotted something horrifying. She was standing in front of the Ferris Wheel and she could see that the very top car had a lot of blood inside and out. White squinted and could see Ruby’s hat stuck in the door…

White put a hand over her mouth and resisted the urge to vomit. She clenched her eyes shut and doubled over in front of a grass patch in case she lost the fight. Black ran up to her and gently rubbed her on the back to help. Eventually, the girl won the internal struggle and took a deep, shuddering breath.

“W – We have to go find the others as soon as possible…”

Black nodded in agreement. “I know. So far, only Silver, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum are left.”

White looked at her Xtransciever when it started to beep. She answered the call and Platinum’s panicked voice came out. Since it was a (non-upgraded) Pokégear to Xtransciever call, the screen remained blank.

“H – Hello? Is anyone there?” the heiress asked, her voice trembling in fear.

“Yes. I’m here,” White quickly answered. “What’s happening over there?”

“S – Senior Silver is…” Platinum started. But it appeared that she was unable to finish her sentence and her sobs were heard from the Xtransciever. The heiress suddenly screamed. “Senior Emerald! Look out! No!”

“Platinum! We have to escape the amusement park!” Black yelled into White’s Xtransciever. “Where are you? We’ll find you and get out together.”

“We… we are inside the Ghost House,” Platinum sobbed out. “Diamond and Pearl are with me, but… senior Emerald…”

“What about the others?” came Pearl’s voice.

“They’re all gone,” White whimpered out. “We’re all that’s left…”

“We’re coming to get you,” Black said. “Try to get out of the Ghost House and into the open as fast as y-”

“Diamond!” Platinum suddenly screamed.

“Miss Lady, we have to run!” came Pearl’s voice.

Black and White quickly ran towards the Ghost House. For now, they had to rescue Platinum and Pearl, _then_ figure out what exactly happened to Diamond, Silver, and Emerald. When the two Unova Dex Holders reached the facility, they could hear Platinum’s screams from the Xtransciever before the call abruptly ended. Black kicked the door open and the two Unova Dex Holders carefully peeked inside. The entrance room was brightly lit and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

The moment the two Dex Holders opened the door to the main scary path of the Ghost House, they found Pearl’s bloodied body near the corner. As the two Unova Dex Holders wandered deeper inside to find Platinum, they found pieces of Emerald’s fake arms littered around. White began to think that she should just flee and escape the amusement park, but she shook her head. She couldn’t escape with Black alone when it was possible that Platinum was alive and hiding somewhere, even though the chances may be very slim. But if the heiress’s body was found and it is confirmed that she was killed, Black and White would abandon everything and leave the amusement park.

White focused on her hearing. There was some slight commotion ahead in the hallway to the left, so it was definitely possible that Platinum was still alive. It was even possible that she was being killed right now…

Black and White quickly turned around the corner so that they may save their younger senior if she was being attacked. Despite the lack of light in the barely illuminated hallway, they could see Platinum’s mangled body lying in a heap on the floor.

“We’re too late… we’re all that’s left,” White muttered in terror.

Suddenly, a figure clad in black clothes and wearing a skull mask seemingly appeared out of nowhere and dashed towards the two Unova Dex Holders.

“Miss President, run!” Black yelled as he forcefully pushed White away from the assailant. The girl did as told and ran as fast as she could manage while Black tried to stall the skull-masked assailant.

White headed towards the exit of the Ghost House as fast as she could manage. But just before she reached the exit, another skull mask wearing figure appeared from the exit and charged straight for her. White quickly spun around but another assailant was directly behind her. She could only scream in terror before she blacked out from shock.

…

White woke up an hour later due to someone dumping a bucket of cold water on her face. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. She froze when she saw the 3 skull mask wearing assailants standing before her. The smallest one crouched in front of her and reached for the mask. The assailant raised it and White could see…

“… Sapphire?”

“Surprise, White!” the Hoenn Dex Holder said rather cheerfully.

White looked to the right and she could see a large table filled with all sorts of delicacies and had all the ‘dead’ Dex Holders gathered around, clapping and cheering. The other two skull masked figures took off their disguises and revealed themselves to be Red and Green.

“Surprise! Happy birthday!” the other Dex Holders (minus Black) yelled cheerfully.

Black approached White and helped her up to her feet. “Are you okay, Miss President?”

White couldn’t reply as she was still way too stunned. Blue approached her and led her towards the party table. “Come now, White. Let’s get your birthday party started!”

The president snapped out of her shock just enough to blurt out the first question that popped into her mind. “H – How… What…”

Blue chuckled a little. “Oh, that was nothing. Most of the bodies you saw from far away were mannequins. There were a few dolls here and there, and a couple of instances of my Ditty. The live action ‘murders’ were just acts. Genuine, first-class acts.”

White let out a long groan. She glanced at all of her seniors in disbelief but was still a little relieved that none of her cruel seniors were dead. She looked over at Black who was slowly shaking his head.

“Did you know about this?”

“No. They only told me after they got me in the Ghost House,” Black replied with a sigh.

“Why exactly did you do this?” White asked Blue in disbelief. “You almost gave me a heart attack… Why would you do this on my birthday?”

“Oh, a few reasons,” Blue said with a smile. “I wanted to throw you a birthday party that you’ll never forget. I also wanted to make it a surprise, but you already knew about it, and this was one way to throw a truly unexpected party.” She chuckled a bit before continuing. “But there is a bigger reason.”

“And what’s that?”

Blue cleared her throat and spoke in an announcement style. “White, as the newest Dex Holder, you are now a part of our group. As such, you are now an acceptable target for various pranks, jokes, and tricks by the Dex Holders and you will also be involved in all the shenanigans that we cause.”

“In other words,” Gold said from behind. “Get ready to have your world turned upside down multiple times a month.”

White groaned again as she sat down on her designated seat. Black sat beside her and patted her shoulder.

“At least the scary part is over.”

White sighed. “I guess…”

The enjoyable part of the party soon began and Blue pushed a small moving table filled with present boxes towards White.

The president opened Black’s gift first. Her closest friend’s gift was a ticket for a ride on the Royal Unova. White thanked Black for the expensive ticket. The ticket was for a ride in 3 days, and White couldn’t wait. After all, the Royal Unova was a _very_ relaxing and even romantic cruise.

White opened Platinum’s birthday gift next. The gift was in the form of a very expensive looking scarf, which the president immediately wore. It felt very comfortable and warming too. She thanked her senior for the scarf but not for renting the amusement park. White wasn’t quite sure whether she wanted to remember this particular birthday party yet.

Diamond and Pearl’s gifts were in the form of a birthday cake which would be served later, so White moved on to the Hoenn Dex Holders. Apparently the three had pitched in and got her a new Pokénav that had the detailed map of Unova along with all the other features of the device.

The Johto Dex Holders’ gifts varied. Crystal’s was a pair of winter gloves and socks that she had personally made, Gold’s was an entry pass for the Pokéthlon near the National Park of Johto, and Silver’s was a book (that White had wanted to read. Blue must’ve told him).

White started to open the Kanto Dex Holders’ gift boxes expectantly. Yellow’s box contained a compressed fishing rod that could extend in the same manner as Gold’s billiard cue. Red and Green’s birthday gift was… rather unique. It was an opportunity to teach both Unova Dex Holders the Ultimate Moves _without_ going through the physical nightmare known as the 3 Paths. White mentally decided to cash in the opportunity as soon as possible, before her two seniors changed their minds.

Finally, White stared at Blue’s birthday gift box. She carefully tapped it and took cover behind Black, in case it exploded. But nothing happened to the box so with a slightly embarrassed look (and a questioning one from Black), White carefully opened the box. The moment she opened it, she backed away, in case something popped out. After the heart-attack inducing opening party, White didn’t trust Blue. After the Kanto Dex Holder’s declaration of shenanigans, she _really_ didn’t trust her. Everything and anything could be pranks/traps in waiting, after all.

But since nothing happened at all, White looked into the box. She could see a disc of some sort, along with a disc player… She looked at her devious senior in question.

“That disc contains today’s opening event in video format,” Blue explained with a smile. “You’ll be able to see what I saw after I pretended to be dead. You probably didn’t notice, but there were hidden cameras all over the place to capture _everything_.”

“Um…” White muttered, as she had no idea what to say to such a gift.

“Now you’ll _never_ be able to forget tonight!” Blue added in an ominously cheerful way.

White groaned. “… Thanks…”

Soon, the birthday song and the feast started. The dessert was Diamond and Pearl’s birthday gift. After the (very) delicious birthday cake, which had been created by the two Sinnoh Dex Holders while they were pretending to be in the Ghost House, everyone watched in a range of full amusement to complete boredom as Diamond and Pearl performed some of their comedy acts. During the laughter/cold stares, Black sat beside White after getting another slice of cake.

“Feeling better now?”

White nodded. “Yes. The food was delicious and the gifts were very nice. Although I hate to think what might happen to me later tonight. I don’t think I’ll be able to forget the horrors of earlier today.”

“At least everything’s over now, right Miss President?”

White sighed as she looked at Black. She smiled in a way that incorporated all of her emotions. Happiness, despair, relief, fear, etc. She pulled out her Pokédex and stared at it with a mix of pride and spite as she muttered her next sentence.

“No, I think we’re just getting started…”


	6. Halloween Special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on October 31, 2012. Hence Halloween Special!

Chapter 6: Halloween Special

October 27, 3 pm, Hearthome City, Sinnoh…

Green, Blue, Gold, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum waited in the rented out feast hall for the other Dex Holders to arrive. It was Platinum’s birthday and the heiress was getting anxious, afraid that some of her seniors (and juniors) would not be able to attend.

On the large table set up in the middle of the feast hall, there was a pile of birthday present boxes stacked up. The stack was going to become much larger when the remaining Dex Holders arrived, and Platinum wished they would hurry it up.

From the kitchen, Diamond and Pearl entered, carrying several large trays filled with special cookies that the relaxed Dex Holder made for the occasion. The moment they set the trays on the dinner table, all the Dex Holders (minus Green) came close to have a taste.

Green silently groaned as all of the other Dex Holders started to chat louder and louder. It was getting increasingly difficult to focus on the news he was trying to read. He looked up from his newspaper when Platinum came close.

“Hey, senior… have a bite,” she said as she held a cookie with one hand.

Green narrowed his eyes slightly and observed his junior’s expression. Did Platinum just say “hey”? And is she presenting him a cookie with just _one hand_? Normally, given the girl’s education, she would’ve presented him a cookie on a plate and with both hands, probably with a slight bow.

The Viridian Gym Leader took the cookie and was about to take a bite when he caught a whiff of something. He sniffed at the cookie and realized something.

‘ _Oh, no… This could have some complications…_ ’ Green thought as he returned the cookie to Platinum. He then headed towards the kitchen to confirm his suspicion.

Just as Green disappeared into the kitchen, the entrance to the feast hall opened and the missing Dex Holders appeared. The moment they entered, they could see Diamond and Pearl performing a comedy act.

“Speaking of Pokémon!” Diamond started.

“Speaking of Pokémon~!” Pearl followed.

The late Dex Holders walked closer to the center of the feast hall but they stopped when the two Sinnoh Dex Holders’ comedy act approached their ‘classic’ part where Diamond smacks Pearl on the back of the head… wait… what? They looked at the others to see if they noticed something wrong as well. _Crystal_ was laughing to the point of tears, while Blue and Gold remained perfectly silent. Normally, Gold would be laughing to tears while Crystal remained silent. Blue would giggle occasionally at Diamond and Pearl’s comedy acts, but she always showed some reaction.

“… Is it just me, or is something different here?” Red asked as he looked at Yellow and the others who arrived late.

Yellow looked quite confused as she observed the unusual behaviors of the other Dex Holders. Emerald looked over at Ruby and Sapphire, who were busy bickering near the dinner table.

“Well, those two didn’t seem to change at all,” he commented.

Black and White looked over at their two Hoenn seniors and soon noticed something. “Actually,” White started. “They did change.”

Emerald observed his two friends (though he did not like acknowledging their friendship). It seemed that Sapphire was arguing about how her Pokémon needed to stay beautiful while Ruby argued that power was far more practical than beauty.

Emerald soon headed for the exit. “All right. That’s it. I’m out of here. This is just… too damn weird.”

“Emerald!” Crystal called out. She quickly ran towards him and embraced him. “I’m glad you’re here! Come on, enjoy the party!”

“Uh… what?!” Emerald yelled out as he looked at Crystal. “What happened to you?”

“You’re too serious all the time!” Crystal said. “Come on, live a little!”

“Crys,” Gold said from behind with a sigh. “Try to be a better role model. You’re not setting a good example here.”

Emerald looked back and forth between his two Johto seniors. “… THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!”

Just then, Green came out of the kitchen, holding an empty bottle in his hand and a solemn expression on his face. He looked at the Dex Holders who arrived late and approached them.

“We have a big problem here.”

Silver looked over at Blue, who was… reading the news? Right beside her was Platinum, who appeared to be trying to pull a prank on the Kanto Dex Holder.

“… Clearly…”

Soon, all the normal Dex Holders gathered around the table in the kitchen while all the ‘crazed’ Dex Holders were in the main room of the feast hall, doing… whatever.

“Okay, here’s the situation,” Green said as he cleared his throat. “I’m researching on the type of venom from Toxicroak and its possible uses in medicine. I put the raw venom in this bottle,” he said as he looked at the empty bottle that was sitting on the center of the table. “I needed to keep it cool, so I kept it in the refrigerator. But because of its color, I think Diamond accidentally thought it for something else and used it when he made those cookies. The unusual behaviors of everyone else must be a consequence from eating those cookies.”

“How do we counteract the venom’s effects?” White asked.

Green crossed his arms and thought for a second. “This specific type of venom is neutralized by alcohol.”

Red reached into his bag and withdrew two bottles of liquor. The other Dex Holders all stared at him in shock.

“… Red, are those…” Black began.

“Red… what the hell?” Green said as he looked back and forth between his friend and the two liquor bottles.

The Kanto champion rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Well… You know that saying “Whatever happens in Nimbasa stays in Nimbasa”? It wasn’t _entirely_ true this time. Let’s just say that… this little happening _followed_ me.” He still received accusing stares from his friends. “Hey, I only take a slight swig every now and then!”

Green shook his head. “Anyways… I’m not sure what would happen if someone drinks this while they’re affected by the Toxicroak venom.”

“… Let’s try it on one person and see what happens,” White suggested.

“All right then, who do you suggest we try this on?” Green asked.

“I vote Blue,” White said. Silver suddenly turned to glare at her and she visibly flinched. “I – I mean… Gold.”

Black thought for a few seconds. “… Do we _need_ to revert all of the others back to normal? I mean… it’s an interesting change, don’t you think? And besides, some changes might be for the bet-” He was cut off by a loud yell from outside the kitchen.

“Oh, you _idiot_!” came _Platinum’s_ voice.

“… That, we _need_ to change,” Yellow said.

Black nodded in agreement. “Yeah…”

“… Platinum!” Red yelled.

“What?!” came the girl’s annoyed voice.

“… Get over here for a second!” Red yelled again after a slight hesitation, taken aback by the HUGE changes in his junior.

Red poured some liquor into a tall glass cup and hid the two bottles. When the heiress came, he offered her the cup.

“What is this?” Platinum asked.

“Drink it. It’s… uh… good for you,” Red said partially truthfully.

“… No, I don’t want to,” the heiress said after taking a sniff.

Red rose to his feet and approached his junior, who was staring at him defiantly. She definitely needed to return to normal… Red took the cup and looked at the other Dex Holders for help. Black and White each grabbed onto Platinum’s arm while Emerald used his Magic Hand Extensors to keep his junior’s legs in place. That way, the heiress could not thrash around as Red forced her mouth to open.

“Sorry Platinum, but this is for your own good,” Red said as he poured the alcohol into his junior’s mouth.

The heiress tried to struggle and spit the alcohol out but Red had shut her mouth and pinched her nose so that she had no choice but to swallow. The moment she did, she shut her eyes in agony and struggled even harder. But then she suddenly stopped and went limp.

“… Platinum?” White called as she shook her younger senior.

Platinum soon snapped awake. She looked at Red with tired eyes and spoke.

“S – Senior? What… what happened?” she asked. Her voice was oddly slurred…

‘ _Uh oh… looks like I gave her a bit too much…_ ’ Red thought as his junior started to hiccup. ‘ _I guess a third of a bottle was too much…_ ’ “Uh… how are you feeling?”

Platinum hiccupped again. “I – I feel… great!” She looked unsteady on her feet… She glanced out through the door to the kitchen and turned her blurred focus on Red. “N – Now if you will… excuse me, senior, I… I am going to see… Diamond…”

Red watched Platinum stumble out of the kitchen and sat down on his seat again. He took a swig from the open liquor bottle and received varying stares from the other Dex Holders. “… What?”

“Well, Red,” Green started. “It appears that while you did force Platinum to return to normal, you made her drunk. So basically, you didn’t help at all.” Red took another swig. “Stop drinking!” Green snapped at him.

Just then, the normal Dex Holders heard a very loud laughter coming from the outside. Yellow peeked into the main room of the feast hall and returned to her seat.

“That was Platinum and Crys,” she said slowly. “… I think Platinum ate another cookie.”

Green sighed. “We have no choice. Everyone, take a cup, fill to a quarter full with Red’s… _drink_ , and force one of the affected Dex Holders to drink it. Emerald, you’ll need to take both Ruby and Sapphire, so take two cups.”

“What about Platinum?” Red asked. “She’s already kind of… drunk.”

“… We’ll figure something out after all those cookies are disposed of and everyone else returns to normal,” Green replied.

The normal Dex Holders each took a cup and filled it accordingly. They soon headed towards all the affected Dex Holders and began carrying out their plan.

Green first approached Blue, who was reading the news in the corner of the feast hall. The Gym Leader hesitated a little, as he honestly wondered whether things would be better off with Blue staying like she was right now. But he decided that _all_ the Dex Holders needed to return to normal, so he went up to her.

“Blue,” he said when he came close enough.

“Not now, Green. I’m busy,” Blue said after a sigh without even looking up from the news.

‘ _Hm… I heard that somewhere before…_ ’ “Here, drink this,” Green said as he gave her the cup he was holding.

Blue sighed again and looked up at him. “What part of “I’m busy” did you not understand?”

Green rolled his eyes a little. ‘ _Something tells me she’s acting like… me._ ’ “Just drink this.”

Blue narrowed her eyes. “… Why?”

“Because you’re not acting like yourself, and this will fix that.”

“I’m perfectly fine the way I am, thank you,” Blue said as she returned her focus back to the newspaper.

‘ _Damn it… If she’s going to act like me, then I have to act like her!_ ’ “Very well then. If you don’t drink this, I’ll have Golduck blast you with Hydro Pump. I just hope you don’t have any electronics on you.”

Blue sighed and shook her head. “Fine. I’ll drink that if it means that you’ll leave me alone.”

‘ _Am I really that easy?_ ’ “Here.”

Blue took the cup and drank the liquor in one gulp. Green took the empty cup and watched her expression. She blinked a few times and shook her head. She smiled brightly (and a little mischievously) at Green.

“Whew!” she said in her usual cheerful tone. “It’s getting hot here!” She then moved her arms to the end of her shirt, as if she was about to take it off.

“Blue, restrain yourself,” Green said quickly and quietly. He was partially glad that Blue was back to normal-ish, but on the other hand… maybe her ‘Green’ persona was indeed better.

Blue grinned and patted him on the cheek. “Aw… you’re cute when you’re flustered.”

Green rolled his eyes. He looked behind him looked on the dinner tables. ‘ _Where’s that damn cookie?_ ’

At the same time, Emerald approached Ruby and Sapphire, who were still bickering about beauty and power. The arguments were the same as all the others ones he had heard before, but… coming from the opposite Dex Holder. Sapphire saw him approach and ran up to him.

“Emerald! What do you think is most important? Beauty or barbaric power?”

Ruby ran up to him as well. “Emerald! Of course you _know_ that power and strength is more important than petty appearance!”

Emerald groaned. Talking to them was going to drive him insane, as always but in a different manner. He looked at Sapphire and gave her one of the cups. Her situation was more extreme, as “beauty” just didn’t match her at all. Ruby was a very strong trainer (admittedly), so “power” matched him quite all right, but Sapphire…

“Drink this.”

“Why?” Sapphire asked as she took the cup. “This smells quite bad.”

“Just drink, damn you,” Emerald said. “It’ll make you… uh… _beautiful_.”

In that instant, Sapphire chugged the liquor and Emerald gave the remaining cup to Ruby.

“I’m not drinking that!” Ruby yelled. “I don’t want to end up like Sapphire! Obsessed with beauty? That’s absurd!”

‘ _Yeah… Absurd…_ ’ Emerald slightly shook his head. “This is a different drink. This will make you more powerful than you could _possibly_ imagine.”

Ruby quickly drank the liquor and Emerald sighed in relief. His two friends both returned the empty cups and looked at each other.

“S – Sapphire,” Ruby said in a slurred voice.

“What?” Sapphire asked in an equally slurred voice.

“Did… did I ever tell you that… you’re barbaric?”

“Shut up… you sissy…”

‘ _That’s better,_ ’ Emerald thought as he steadily headed to return the empty cups to the kitchen.

“But… you are beautiful,” Ruby said from behind.

“… Thanks, Ruby,” came Sapphire’s embarrassed voice.

‘ _And… I’m getting the hell out of here!_ ’ Emerald thought as he increased his walking speed.

10 minutes later, Green stood in the center of the main room in the feast hall, looking at all of the other Dex Holders. He still had half of the liquor bottle full, and he was trying to see if there was anyone who needed a dose. So far, no one seemed to need the additional doses. Platinum, who had two separate doses of the ‘spiked’ cookies… appeared incredibly drunk. Apparently, Red gave her _even more_ to drink.

All the abnormal Dex Holders were back to normal, albeit being drunk. Red was sitting in the corner, drinking whatever was left in his liquor bottle. The others were scattered around, doing whatever they thought was nice in their distorted minds. Green was about to head back to his seat in the corner of the room (that Blue had occupied while she was ‘crazy’) to resume reading the news when he noticed something weird again.

Everyone else was playing utterly mindless games and acting quite odd, yet again. But this time, they weren’t behaving completely differently from their actual personalities, but rather, drunk. Green looked at the Dex Holder who didn’t eat the ‘spiked’ cookies, wondering why they were drunk. Then he saw the problem.

Each group of Dex Holders had a couple of bottles of empty liquor bottles beside them. Green quickly looked into the kitchen and saw the liquor cabinet completely empty. He glared at Red, who was probably the cause of the alcohol spreading. The Kanto champion saw him and raised his full liquor bottle as a salute/offer. He apparently had another one in his bag…

Green sighed and looked around the groups of Dex Holders to see if anyone was sober. Apparently he was the only one… Green groaned. There was no way he’d be able to fix this problem. He couldn’t just leave either. If something bad happened, then it would be his fault for leaving a bunch of drunk Dex Holders all by themselves. He couldn’t stay with them either, as their crazy laughs and mindless games would drive him insane. … There was one thing he could do…

Green sighed again and chugged the remaining liquor in his bottle.


	7. Containment - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's now time for the infamous Containment Series.
> 
> Due to a variety of reasons, this mini series is a partial crossover, not that it particularly matters. As usual, all focus goes to the Dex Holders.
> 
> WARNING! This 3-chapter mini series contains significant amount of death, fate worse than death, weapons, blood, gruesome content, and some minor swearing.
> 
> This series was first uploaded on November 9, 2012.

Chapter 7: Containment Part 1

April 30, 1 pm, Resort Area, Sinnoh…

Crystal stretched and leaned back against her chair in front of Platinum’s personal villa, relaxing in the warm late-spring sunlight. She looked to her left where all the male Dex Holders were playing games (except for Green, who was reading the news as always). To her right, all the female Dex Holders were relaxing in the sunlight, enjoying the calm breeze in the peaceful villa. The Sinnoh Dex Holders were preparing for the party, as always.

Crystal was there in the Resort Area for two reasons. One, Platinum was (once again) throwing her birthday party there, and two, Crystal had never been to her junior’s personal villa.

Before long, the official party started. Diamond and Pearl pulled out a moving table with a large birthday cake, sufficient for all 15 Dex Holders to enjoy. Crystal thanked her two juniors for the wonderful cake and blew out the candles.

An hour later, as the Dex Holders scattered once again to enjoy the calm and peaceful atmosphere. Crystal had resumed her previous position on her chair and Gold was sitting beside her, trying to convince her to go on a date with him.

‘ _Mmm… I’m in a good mood. Maybe I’ll say yes,_ ’ she thought as she looked at Gold. He was looking at her expectantly, hoping that this attempt would be successful. ‘ _Oh, what the hell._ ’ She gave him a warm smiled and slowly nodded. “All right Gold. I’ll give it a try.”

“All right! Thanks, Crys. You won’t regret it, I promise!”

Crystal watched him jump in the air and slowly closed her eyes. ‘ _Well… I guess he is pretty good looking. Maybe it won’t be as bad as I thought._ ’ She let out a sigh of content and opened her eyes again. ‘ _Ah, this is turning out to be my best birthday ev-_ ’

Suddenly, the entire villa and the ground seemed to shake violently. Crystal quickly sat up and looked around, wondering if it was an earthquake. Some of the Dex Holders lost balance and fell while the others quickly crouched down. Just then, a massive shadow was cast over the entire villa as something large flew directly overhead. Crystal looked up and saw a giant burning aircraft rapidly losing altitude as it flew north.

As several Dex Holders watched it, the ship soon hit the ground around Route 228 with a massive thud. The Dex Holders all rose to their feet and looked at the direction of the ship, wondering what it was.

“What was that?” Blue muttered. “It looked like a giant aircraft. Where did it come from?”

“And why was it so damaged?” White asked.

“Well, let’s go and take a look,” Gold suggested.

“I don’t know,” White said as she looked at her senior. “Something tells me that we shouldn’t go near it.”

“Oh, come on. Show some courage!” Sapphire said as she clenched her fists. “It’s worth taking a look.”

Before long, all 15 Dex Holders were on their way towards the crash site. White still felt bad about the whole expedition, but remained silent. There was no point in making herself sound like a coward to her seniors.

Once the Dex Holders passed the short Route 229 and entered Route 228, they could see the carnage caused by the wreckage. It appeared that the ship had broken into many pieces before impact. The lower half of the ship was on Route 228 while the front half appeared to reach as far as Stark Mountain. The 15 Dex Holders approached the biggest intact piece of the ship.

“Wait,” Sapphire said when she came close to the wreckage. “… What’s that smell?” The other Dex Holders stopped and sniffed at the air. “That stench is just… awful…”

“I think I smell it too,” Blue said as she pinched her nose. “It almost smells as if someone died and no one noticed for weeks.”

“Did you hear that?!” Sapphire said abruptly as she crouched down to her most mobile state. “It sounded like a growl…”

As the Dex Holders continued to investigate the odd ship remains, something really loud was coming closer from the sky. Sapphire looked up first and the other Dex Holders did as well. The falling object came closer and closer and became louder as a result. The object slammed into the ground a few meters away from the Dex Holders with an earth-shaking thud.

“What is that?” Gold asked as he slowly walked closer. Crystal followed him, as she was equally curious.

The object was fairly large, appeared to be a giant metal casing of sort, with rocket propulsion system on the bottom so that the metal object doesn’t get destroyed upon impact or leave a giant crater. Was it a locker of some sort? A physical storage casing?

With a loud hiss, the object started to vent. Crystal jumped in surprise and Gold quickly moved in front of her, just in case. He had to look good in front of Crystal, otherwise she wasn’t going to go out with him anytime soon. The object in front suddenly opened and a figure completely clad in black stepped out. The figure looked back into the metallic pod it came from and took out several objects. The figure put one small object to its right leg, one larger object on its back, and carried another one in its arms.

The figure then looked at the Dex Holders and approached them. When it came closer, the Dex Holders could see that it was carrying a rifle or some sort in its arms.

“Who are you, and why are you carrying that?” Gold asked as he stood in a protective stance, covering Crystal.

The armed figure ignored him and looked at the other Dex Holders. The figure looked at White intently.

“… You look familiar,” the figure muttered, his voice heard through a speaker of sorts on the helmet.

White looked slightly frightened and Black stepped in front of her. “Y – You know who I am?”

“Yeah. My sister participated in one of the projects on your company,” said the trooper. “She used my Espeon… well, it’s hers now… for a movie last year.”

White thought for a few seconds. “Oh, now I remember. Sora, right? She told me a lot about you.”

“You know this guy, Miss President?” Black asked.

“Sort of. We’ve met once, but he didn’t have this… um… _suit_ on,” White answered. “According to Sora, he’s an ODST.”

“A what?” Black asked.

“Orbital Drop Shock Trooper,” the president answered. “That… explains a lot, don’t you think?” She looked at the trooper. “Helljumpers, right?”

The trooper nodded. “Feet first into hell.”

White pointed at the metal pod in which he came from. “So that’s your SOEIV?”

“Yeah,” the trooper answered. “When I get back to _Cerulean Sky_ , I’ll get another one for my next drop.”

“SOEIV?” Diamond whispered to Platinum.

“Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle,” the heiress whispered back. “I have heard of these from the news.”

“Sora told me that her brother was conscripted in the military when he was 7,” White explained to the other Dex Holders. “But she never told me why… Or his name, for that matter.”

“Better that way,” said the trooper. He looked at the crashed ship and scanned the area. “Well, you guys should probably get out of here. Police are going to be locking this Route and the next one so no one can get near this ship. Additional soldiers will be posted around the wreckage in case anything happens and you wouldn’t want to appear suspicious.”

The Dex Holders did as told by the trooper and headed back towards the Resort Area. Though they were a little concerned about the crashed vessel, they figured that if the military was getting involved, then whatever the situation was, it would be under control.

…

Several hours later, 9 pm…

…

The Dex Holders continued with Crystal’s birthday party. This time, the party involved the swimming pool and a hot tub. Even though it was late spring, around nighttime, the air started to become cool and thus, the hot tubs were extremely enjoyable. But not everyone was having fun. White quietly approached Black in the swimming pool.

“Black,” she started quietly. “I need to talk to you.”

Black took a look around to make sure that no other Dex Holder was nearby. “What’s wrong, Miss President?”

“I don’t know why, but nowadays, my heart occasionally beats hard and fast, and I feel as if I’m going to die…”

“Wh – what?” Black muttered in shock. “You should go to a hospital, Miss President.”

White looked quite frightened. “I did a few times, but the doctors don’t know what’s happening. And especially today, with that crashed ship, I think something terrible is going to happen to me. And… in case that does happen, I just want you to know that I love you.”

Black gently kissed her on the lips. “I know, Miss President. I love you too. But listen to me. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promise. I’ll make sure of it.”

Before he even finished, a series of loud screams and gunshots echoed from Route 229. White looked around fearfully as her heart started to beat harder and faster again. Black quickly pulled her out of the swimming pool and into the villa. The other Dex Holders entered the villa shortly after and one by one, they changed back to their regular clothes and packed up. It was clear that something very dangerous was happening.

“Lady, what should we do?” Diamond asked Platinum once the heiress had finished changing and exited the washroom.

“We must cross Route 229 and get to Route 230. We will take a ferry to the Fight Area where we will take the ship to Sinnoh mainland,” Platinum replied.

Once all the Dex Holders were ready, they quickly exited and locked the villa before heading towards Route 229. White held onto Black’s hand tight and didn’t let go. While the Dex Holders approached Route 229, the gunshots and screams continued. But they were able to reach Route 230 and the harbor without incident. There was still one ferry docked on the harbor and the Dex Holders rushed over.

But the moment they were about to board, a bullet whizzed past the leading Dex Holder’s head. The Dex Holders froze and looked at the ferry and realized that there was someone on it.

“Stay back! Stay back!” the man cried frantically. “You’re not turning me into one of those things! I’ll blow your brains out! Get away from me!” The Dex Holders backed away as the insane man fired another shot in the air while screaming. “Ahhh! AHHHHH! Don’t touch me, you freaks!” the man yelled again. “I won’t be like you, I’ll die first! Find your own hiding place! The monsters are everywhere!” The man exhibited a drastic change in emotions as he suddenly started to sob. “Monsters… I don’t want to be like them. Please… please, no, no…” He started to scream again. “Just leave me alone!”

The crazed man started the ferry on his own while keeping his pistol aimed at the Dex Holders. The ferry soon left the harbor and the Dex Holders could only stare in despair as their only way across Route 230 was getting farther away. But not a minute after leaving the harbor, a rocket was fired from the forests to the side of the water and destroyed the ferry.

“What… What do we do?” White muttered in terror.

Green sighed. “We have to go around the long way. We’ll have to go up to Route 228, go through Route 226 and into the Survival Area. Then we have to go through Route 225 to get to the Fight Area. We have no other choice.”

Blue looked up at the sky. In the cloudless night sky, there were lots of stars visible. But some of the stars were getting bigger and bigger… It took her a second to realize that those ‘stars’ were actually drop pods.

“Maybe we should go to them,” she said as she pointed at the SOEIVs.

The Dex Holders soon headed towards Route 229, where the pods were landing. The shooting and screaming had calmed down in the route, and there were quite a few dead bodies lying here and there. The female Dex Holders tried their best to avoid looking at the bodies. The male Dex Holders looked around to see if there were any survivors so that they may find out what was happening. There was one survivor, but…

Gold approached him. The survivor appeared to be a police officer, given the clothes. The policeman was on his knees on the ground, with his pistol aimed at his own head. Gold tried to talk to him, but the policeman seemed way too traumatized.

“I – I didn’t have a choice!” he cried out. The other Dex Holders heard him and gathered near him. “The LT… the Sergeant… they were _all_ infected! I could see it crawling… _sliding around beneath their skin_! A – And then they got up… they s – started to talk! Oh, _their voices_! No, _make them stop_!” The man cried and sobbed some more as the Dex Holders stared at him in silence. “… I did them a favor… y – yeah, that’s it! I _helped_ them! … Maybe… maybe I need to help myself…”

The traumatized policeman looked up once before he pulled the trigger. The female Dex Holders shut their eyes in time to avoid seeing the man’s brain bits being blown out. Suddenly, there was a loud growling from behind as some of the dead bodies started to thrash around.

White looked behind her and screamed in terror. The dead bodies were back on their feet, but… differently. The body’s skin was a sickening shade of greenish yellow. The left arm had two long, thick tentacles and a smaller third one sprouting from the wrist. The… head was hanging limp to the side and there was something large sticking out from the chest, pushing the neck upwards. They were all growling in a way that sent shivers down White’s spine.

The leading reanimated body swung its tentacles at White. But before they could hit her, a loud crack of a rifle shot rang from afar and the _thing_ inside the body’s chest exploded. The body simply dropped, its tentacles hitting the ground harmlessly. Black quickly embraced White and spun her away from the other bodies that were trudging closer. The president trembled as she buried her face into Black’s chest. Black gently patted her on the back to calm her down. The remaining reanimated bodies were about to swing their tentacles at the two Unova Dex Holders when another series of loud cracks dropped them as well.

Black and White looked into the distance where the ODST that had saved them was running closer. As the trooper came closer, Green picked up the pistol of the traumatized policeman.

“Everyone, grab a weapon,” he said as he checked the magazine of the pistol. “We’re going to need to defend ourselves here.”

The other Dex Holders started to scavenge the area for weapons. Luckily, there were lots of dead bodies with weapons nearby, so it was easy for the Dex Holders to stock up. Green gave his pistol to Blue while he picked up a shotgun near a dead police officer.

Just then, there were loud terrifying growls everywhere as more reanimated bodies started to mindlessly run closer. The monsters, as the crazed man on the ferry referred to as, were flailing their arms and tentacles as they flooded towards the Dex Holders. The bodies were exuding absolutely foul stench that forced all the Dex Holders to breathe through their mouths instead.

Blue proceeded to shoot the flooding bodies with the pistol Green gave her. But to her surprise, the oncoming bodies didn’t stop at all despite the fact that she shot them in the head. She ended up emptying the clip and backed away from the oncoming bodies. Again, a loud crack of a rifle shot from the distance hit the body in the chest and it crumpled on the ground.

“Everyone,” Blue yelled out. “Shoot these things in the chest!”

The armed Dex Holders did as told and mowed down the bodies until they ran out of ammo. The ODST in the distance continued to run closer while firing his marksman’s rifle.

Gold blasted one of the bodies with a burst from the assault rifle he picked up and watched it crumple on the ground. “Get up so I can kill you again, you bastard!” he taunted the body. The idea was to look tough in front of Crystal, but… Unfortunately, the reanimated body _did_ get back up and charged towards Gold. “Whoa! Shit! I didn’t mean literally!” Gold yelled in surprise as he shot the body again.

Thankfully, Crystal didn’t have time to observe his panicking expression, as she was busy dealing with the horde of bodies with her own weapon. Once all of the reanimated monsters dropped dead and _stayed_ dead, the Dex Holders carefully scavenged the area for some more weapons.

White was about to pick up a submachine gun when she saw something moving towards her. She quickly picked up the weapon and looked at the thing that was coming closer. The thing was slightly bigger than a human head, and was greenish white in color. It had no eyes or anything, and appeared more like a giant popcorn with lots of tentacles on the bottom. But seeing how it was expanding and shrinking a little, it seemed to resemble a balloon more than anything.

White decided that the unknown thing couldn’t be good and was about to shoot it when it jumped towards her. White quickly dropped the SMG and grabbed the balloon like thing. The unknown life form extended its tentacles towards her and stabbed into her chest.

“Agh!” White gasped in pain. The other Dex Holders heard her pained gasp and quickly turned to look at her. The Unova Dex Holder still had her back turned towards them so they couldn’t see what was happening. While trying her best to keep the balloon like thing off of her, White managed to turn around. The balloon like thing started to _dig_ into White’s chest, tearing out pieces of her shirt, flesh, and even bones. “G – Gah!” White gasped out. “H – Help… Get this thing off of me!”

The Dex Holders aimed their weapons at the balloon like thing, but couldn’t fire as they were afraid of the bullets killing White instead.

Black quickly ran towards her but it was too late. Just before he could grab the balloon like thing, it had already broken enough of White’s ribcage and entered her chest between her breasts. The girl started to scream in pain and doubled over as lots of her blood spilled from her chest cavity.

“Miss President!” Black yelled in horror.

White started to tremble violently as the balloon like thing caused her skin to swell and burst into dark red and _yellow-green_ blood all around her neck and shoulder. The bursts ripped through her shirt and everyone could see the balloon like thing forcing White’s body to make room.

“B – Black… help me!” White cried out as she lost control of her arms. “No… No, no, no! No! AHHHHHH!”

The girl’s eyes were wide open in pain and terror as her hands were pressed against her temples. Her hands had grabbed onto her head and she screamed again. The other Dex Holders looked with horror as White’s skin started to rot. Suddenly, White jerked her arms, snapping her own neck.

“Miss President!” Black cried out. “No!”

White collapsed on the ground and trembled even more violently. Her head was hanging limp to the side as her body pushed itself off the ground. She was starting to growl in a terribly creepy way that sent shivers down everyone’s spines. The girl’s body got up to her knees. With a sickening sound of flesh ripping, the girl raised her arms in the air as her left hand snapped down and two long, thick tentacles violently sprouted from the wrist, followed by a short third tentacle.

The _thing_ that used to be White got up to its feet and growled at the Dex Holders. Black simply froze in horror. White’s face was still clearly visible despite her skin rotting and her head snapped to the side. The girl’s eyes were clenched shut but her mouth was gaping open. Her face was frozen in indescribable agony… The balloon like thing that had entered the girl’s chest was now clearly visible in the massive chest cavity that now stretched from the girl’s heart to past her head’s current height. A couple of tentacles of the balloon like thing were flailing in the air in front of the chest cavity, as if it was sensing the area.

The other Dex Holders stared at the abomination in shock and horror. White, the cheerful and happy new girl who had shown so much potential and always treated everyone with utmost kindness, was now one of the monsters…

* * *

**Imported and modified from SA, the Dex Holder KIA/Infected list: White.**


	8. Containment - Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 is here. This chapter was first uploaded on November 11, 2012.
> 
> Warning! This part contains far more gruesome content than the first part. You have been warned.

Chapter 8: Containment Part 2

April 30, 10 pm, Route 229, Sinnoh…

“M – Miss President,” Black stammered out in terror.

The thing that used to be White lashed out at him with the tentacles on its left arm. Black quickly dodged and backed away. Green pumped his shotgun and aimed. Black quickly stopped him.

“N – No! Don’t shoot!”

“She’s one of them now, Black,” Green said as he kept his eyes on the monster that used to be White. “There’s nothing we can do to save her. We have to put her out of her misery.”

“No!” Black yelled as Green prepared to shoot.

He quickly pushed the gun’s barrel away from White just as the Gym Leader fired. The shotgun blast tore off the tentacle arm of the monster but didn’t hit the main body. The ex-Dex Holder reached for the jagged bones in the left arm with its right hand and tore out a long piece of sharp bone. It then lunged forward with a loud growl, trying to stab its nearest former friends.

Gold blocked the bone with his billiard cue and held it there long enough for Crystal to shoot the monster in the chest, more specifically, at the balloon like thing. The ex-Dex Holder suddenly went limp and crumpled on the ground when the balloon like thing popped from the bullets.

Black dropped to his knees next to his former girlfriend. “No… no! This can’t be real! Miss President!” He tried to shake White and immediately regretted his decision. The former girl’s skin felt like… a sponge. As he shook the body, the squishy body ended up with an imprint of his hands. The girl’s face was still a frozen picture of indescribable agony. Black knew that the disturbing feeling of his former girlfriend’s skin being crushed under his hands and her frozen expression will be etched into his memories forever…

The ODST who had saved the two Unova Dex Holders came close and looked at the remaining Dex Holders. He glanced at all of their faces and noticed something.

“Wait,” he muttered. “Where’s White?” The trooper looked down and saw Black crying in front of a monster that had White’s face and clothes. “Oh, shit… Sora’s not going to be happy…”

The trooper crouched down and examined the former Dex Holder. He could see White’s mouth faintly moving. He then realized that the Dex Holder was still alive and was struggling.

With a sigh, the trooper aimed his marksman’s rifle at White’s head and fired once. The Dex Holder’s skin and bones were already significantly weaker than normal, and as such, when the bullet made impact, it ended up tearing off half of the skull. The trooper then immediately stomped on the back of the monster that used to be White, thereby breaking the rotting body into two. He looked at the remnants, at White’s dissolving brain more specifically, and sighed again.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Black roared as he jumped up.

“I had no choice,” the trooper replied. “I had to put White out of her misery. She was still alive, you know. And as long as the body is physically intact, the Flood will continuously resurrect it.”

“The Flood?” Blue asked.

“These things. They’re known as the Flood. They came from that crashed ship,” the trooper answered. “The Flood spreads very quickly and can infect just about anything that has sufficient biomass.”

“Do you know how these things work?” Green asked.

The trooper nodded. “It first starts with the infection form. They’re these small white ball like things. They’ll attach onto a body with sufficient biomass and infect it. It then becomes the combat form. To kill a combat form, you either need to kill the infection form, or destroy the body completely. A combat form will remain as a combat form until the body runs out of calcium. At that point, the body will start to bloat up and it’ll become like a large egg with two small tentacles and legs. They’re the carrier forms. If you damage it or you get close to it, it’ll explode and release more infection forms. They used to release only 4~6 infection forms, but now they release 20~25.” The trooper walked over to destroy the bodies of the other combat forms. “ _Then_ you have the pure forms. But that’s a different problem altogether.”

“What can we do about it?” Red asked. “Do we just… try to kill all of the Flood?”

“That’s impossible,” the trooper replied. “They’re actually quite intelligent, despite their parasitic nature. They’ll hide underground in sewage drains or in dark areas and find their way to sneak onto transport vessels so they can multiply and infect other areas. If they think they’re at risk of being eradicated, they’ll remain perfectly hidden in unexplored areas and will only attack when they think it’s time.” The trooper sighed. “Right now, our superiors are trying to come up with a solution. But if I had to make a decision, I’d evacuate everyone on the Sinnoh mainland but block off the Battle Zone completely. No one should be allowed to get off this place. Then once that happens, I’d probably use the _Saffron Station_ ’s Super MAC to incinerate this whole region.”

“What?” Diamond muttered. “They’re going to destroy this whole region?”

“More or less,” the trooper answered. “So… we should probably get going before this whole place is locked off. The only safe method of escaping will be to get off the Battle Zone by boat and then be airlifted on water.”

“Will you be going with us?” Blue asked.

The ODST nodded. “Yeah. I know who you guys are. And I know just as well that the world needs you guys. I’ll try my absolute best to make sure that you guys get off this place alive. But you’ll have to do exactly as I say.” He looked at White’s destroyed body. “I’ll try to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“I don’t think this Flood is that much of a concern,” Gold said as he crossed his arms. “I mean… as long as we stay away from them, they can’t harm us.”

“Haven’t you noticed that the Flood combat forms do not mutate the right arm?” the trooper said. “The Flood can use any weapon they can get a hold of. Why do you think we can’t airlift out of here? There are combat forms out there armed with rocket launchers.”

“Oh…” Gold muttered.

“Yeah. So beware. If you see a combat form, shoot first then ask question. Anyways, let’s get going.” He reached for the silenced pistol and silenced submachine gun magnetically attached to his right leg and back. He gave the two weapons to the Dex Holders. “Let me know if you need additional ammo,” he said as he reloaded his designated marksman’s rifle.

Green gave the silenced pistol to Sapphire, since she had the best sight. He gave the silenced SMG to Blue and the 14 Dex Holders moved on towards Route 228. Black cast one last look at the destroyed remnants of the combat form that used to be White and followed his seniors. Blue reached into her bag and put on her modified Silph Scope. Since it was getting dark, it was hard to see if any infection forms were nearby. Blue activated the night vision and took a look around. So far, everything was clear. But something soon caught her eye.

“Wh – What is that?!” she asked in shock.

The ODST turned to look where she was looking. “Get down!” he ordered as he dropped down. The Dex Holders did as told. But to make sure that no infection forms could ambush them, the Dex Holders each faced a different direction.

“Um… sir, what is the matter?” Platinum asked the ODST rather fearfully.

“There’s a Flood pure form over there,” the trooper replied as he pointed ahead. “It’s in the ranged form right now. If we’re not careful, it can kill us all here.”

“Can you kill it?”

“Yes, but it’s hard. The pure forms are very tough. It’ll take a lot of bullets and in that time, it’ll definitely kill some of you.” The ODST took a brief look around. Using the communications system on his armor, he contacted someone. “Wait here,” he said to the Dex Holders. “Help is coming.”

The Dex Holders remained perfectly idle and waited. The ODST continued to communicate through his armor. 15 minutes later, he suddenly turned to look at the Dex Holders.

“Listen. Soon, my squad will arrive and kill that pure form. But when that happens, all the Flood in this area probably charge towards us. We have to fight our way through, so get ready.”

The Dex Holders nodded. Yellow started to tremble in fear and Red gently held her hands to calm her down. Blue saw that and glanced at Green, who only seemed to pay attention to his weapon. Ruby and Sapphire held each other’s hand while holding their weapons with the other. Gold and Diamond embraced Crystal and Platinum respectively and prepared to protect them at all costs. The ODST saw them and shook his head.

“… I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said. “But _perhaps_ a fight against an all-consuming, galaxy-devouring parasite is not the best time for romance.”

“On the contrary, this may be the only time we have,” Black said sadly. “I… just wish I could tell Miss President how I loved her one last time before she…”

“Get ready,” the trooper said abruptly. “Impact in 3… 2… 1…”

Blue looked ahead at the Flood pure form. A second after the trooper said “1”, a rocket was fired at the pure form, blowing it to pieces with a loud explosion. Immediately afterwards, bullets started to fly as the surrounding Flood combat forms engaged the Dex Holders’ help.

“Go, go, go!” the trooper yelled as he jumped to his feet.

The Dex Holders jumped to their feet and followed the trooper. Hundreds of infection forms and combat forms started to appear out of seemingly nowhere and charged towards the Dex Holders. The ODST tossed a grenade to obliterate a large portion while the armed Dex Holders shot down the rest. But as they continued to run, Pearl suddenly groaned and collapsed on the ground.

“Pearl!” Platinum shrieked as she quickly tried to help her friend back up.

“I’m okay,” he said as he got back up. He had his hands pressed firmly against his side and tried his best to keep up.

“Pearl… you are hurt,” the heiress said fearfully. “Please be careful…”

“I’ll be all right, Miss Lady,” Pearl said with a grunt. “Some undead bastard just nicked me, that’s all.”

Diamond and Platinum supported Pearl from either side and continued to run. Before long, all Flood in the area died and the area suddenly fell quiet. The ODST looked at the Dex Holders and ran a headcount. The remaining 14 were all accounted for. With a sigh, he reloaded his designated marksman’s rifle with the last clip and handed out additional silenced SMG and silenced pistol clips to the other Dex Holders. He carefully advanced further and soon met up with 3 other ODSTs from his squad. The Dex Holders quickly followed, glad that they had more professional soldiers to help.

“Lieutenant! I’m glad you could join us,” one of the new ODSTs said as he came closer. His visor turned transparent so his superior could see his face.

“I can’t miss out on this hell, now can I?” the lieutenant replied with a shrug.

“We brought you your favorite gun, LT,” said one of the other new ODSTs.

“You know that a sniper rifle does nothing against the Flood.”

“No, no. Not that gun. The other one. The one that you specifically ordered.”

“Oh. Give me!” The ODST lieutenant received a new marksman’s rifle from the other ODSTs. He then checked over the gun and shouldered it. “How many clips did you bring?” he asked once he felt that his gun was in good condition.

“12,” one of the other ODSTs replied as he gave his superior the extra clips.

“Must be my birthday,” the lieutenant muttered as he put the extra clips in various pockets of his armor. “All right, troopers! We all dropped feet first into hell, and we fought through some hell already. But we still have a long way to go. So let’s keep moving.”

“LT, what’s with the additional luggage?”

“They’re the reason why I called for the three of you,” the lieutenant answered. “They are the world famous Pokédex Holders. And it is our job to escort all of them off this hell. We already lost one. Let’s make sure we don’t lose any more. So introduce yourselves to them so they know what to call you when they need your help.”

The biggest ODST, the one with the rocket launcher, gave the Dex Holders a short salute. “I’m Taylor.”

The second one, who was carrying an assault rifle, was up next. “The name’s Eddie.”

The final one, who seemed to have a plethora of grenades, was last. “I’m Mike.”

“All right then. Now that we all know each other, let’s get going,” the lieutenant said as he started to jog.

The visors of the three ODSTs became opaque and mirrored again as they surrounded the Dex Holders. The group then followed the lieutenant tight, making sure that there was nothing else moving around them.

“Wait,” Sapphire suddenly said as she looked up at the sky. “I hear something…”

The ODSTs looked up and they could see some of the stars in the sky becoming bigger and bigger.

“More ODSTs?” Crystal muttered.

“I didn’t call for more,” the lieutenant said.

One of the incoming objects landed a few meters away with a squishy splat. 4 Flood combat forms and a horde of infection forms emerged from the smoke.

“Oh, shit!” Gold yelled as he began to fire his weapon.

“Flood dispersal pods?” Mike muttered.

“So there’s another Flood controlled ship up there?” the lieutenant muttered. “Mike, contact _Cerulean Sky_ and have it destroy that Flood ship!” He then proceeded to shoot the clusters of Flood with his new marksman’s rifle, in a burst fire. The other ODSTs and Dex Holders began to scatter as they fought the Flood wave.

“Carrier!” Taylor suddenly yelled from behind.

The ODST lieutenant glanced backwards and saw a Flood carrier form only a meter behind him. He quickly grabbed the nearest Dex Holder and jumped away from the carrier form just as it dropped to the ground and exploded. The trooper quickly got to his knees with his weapon leveled and ready to fire. The Dex Holder he just rescued, Blue as it turned out, was still on the ground, rather dazed. But she soon snapped out, raised her silenced SMG and shredded the oncoming waves of infection forms.

Meanwhile, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum all glanced at the carrier form when the ODST alerted everyone to it. Just like the ODST lieutenant, the three Sinnoh Dex Holders were in range of the carrier’s blast and as such, quickly tried to jump out of the way. But Pearl knew that because of him, his two friends would be caught in the explosion. He couldn’t let that happen…

Diamond and Platinum tried to jump with Pearl, but obviously, because they had additional weight (in the form of Pearl), they weren’t going to make much progress. Pearl quickly pushed his two friends forward, away from the Flood carrier just as it exploded.

Platinum landed hard a meter away and took half of a second to shake away the shock. She was about to get up when a body landed right in front of her face. To her horror, the body belonged to Pearl.

“Pearl!” the heiress shrieked out as she crawled over to her friend.

Diamond quickly did the same and the two Sinnoh Dex Holders tried to shake their friend awake. But unfortunately, it appeared that the hasty Dex Holder was a little too close to the Flood carrier form when it exploded…

“Pearl, wake up!” Diamond yelled in panic.

The hasty Dex Holder didn’t move at all. Instead, several Flood infection forms crawled over. Diamond quickly dragged Platinum backwards so that she wouldn’t be infected. Unfortunately, this meant that the infection forms were free to infect Pearl… Diamond quickly tried to kill all of them with an SMG that he picked up a while ago, but he couldn’t kill them all because of ammo shortage. He could only watch in horror as the Flood infected his best friend. Because the hasty Dex Holder was already dead, the infection was quick.

“No!” Platinum screamed as the newly created combat form charged at her.

Diamond quickly stepped in between them to protect Platinum. The ex-Dex Holder swung its tentacles at the heiress and Diamond took the hit instead. Unfortunately for Diamond, a Flood combat form gains superhuman strength upon infection. Even though the tentacles hit him across his back and his bag took the impact first, the attack was still strong enough to break his spine.

Platinum screamed again when Diamond dropped dead in front of her. She quickly scampered backwards while frantically shaking her head. There was no way this was happening… her best friend… _and_ her boyfriend too? As she moved backwards, her hand touched something metallic on the ground; an SMG that was dropped by a combat form during the chaos. She immediately picked it up and aimed it at Pearl. The heiress couldn’t bear to watch and shut her eyes as she pulled the trigger.

She sobbed in despair and kept the trigger pulled until the remaining bullets of the SMG’s 60-round magazine were spent. She then dropped the weapon and opened her eyes. Pearl’s body was on the ground past Diamond, who was up on his feet. The relaxed Dex Holder had been converted to a combat form already, but was missing both arms, as Platinum had blown them off with her SMG as he was being infected.

“D – Diamond…” Platinum sobbed as she saw her former boyfriend mindlessly trudge closer. But because it lacked arms and therefore was harmless, the heiress struggled up to her feet and approached it.

The area soon fell quiet as all of the Flood except for Diamond had been killed. As the ODSTs moved on to destroy the bodies of the combat forms, the Dex Holders stared at Diamond and Platinum. The heiress was crying as she stared at the mutated body of her boyfriend, and the desolate scene prevented anyone from attacking the last remaining combat form. But the scene didn’t last long.

Diamond suddenly started to grow larger. The Flood biomass started to turn white as it grew. Platinum could only stare in horror as Diamond’s body started to turn white and round, like a giant egg. It was growing so big that the boy’s clothes simply shred under the pressure. More Flood biomass covered the ex-boy’s legs, making them appear rather short and stubby.

The other Dex Holders took a couple of steps backwards in shock as Diamond was turned into a Flood carrier form. Platinum remained rooted to the ground, still frantically shaking her head, absolutely refusing to believe what was happening. She only moved when the ODST lieutenant grabbed her by her shoulder and roughly yanked her away from the newly forming carrier form. The moment the heiress was pulled into safety, Mike blasted the former Dex Holder with a shotgun. As the carrier was in the process of mutation and as such it did not have any infection forms being created, it did not explode, and instead, dropped to the ground.

Platinum approached the dead carrier form and dropped to her knees in front of it. She was about to touch it when it burst into blood, like a water balloon that got pricked with a pin. The heiress looked down at her dress, which was now covered in dark red blood of Diamond and yellowish green Flood blood. She then looked at the burst remains. She could see Diamond’s broken and deteriorating skeletal frame under a layer of Flood biomass.

Platinum couldn’t take it anymore. She leaned over to the side and started to vomit. Blue and Yellow knelt beside her and patted her on the back to assist. The other Dex Holders and ODSTs looked on quietly, as a solemn tribute to allies fallen. The silent tribute continued until Red suddenly groaned from behind.

The ODST lieutenant looked back and saw the Kanto champion fall with several bone-like spikes sticking out from his chest. “Everyone get down!” he quickly ordered as more of the bone-like spikes flew overhead.

The Dex Holders did as told except Platinum, who didn’t seem to care anymore. Blue forced her to take cover as Yellow crawled towards Red.

“Red! Red!” she cried in panic. She flipped Red over so that he lied face up and gasped in terror. It appeared that one of the bone-like spikes had hit him directly on the heart. “Red! No!”

“What’s happening?” Emerald asked the ODST right beside him.

“Flood pure form,” Eddie replied. “It’s in the ranged form and it knows we’re here.”

Emerald looked at the ranged form and tried to figure out what the hell was what. The pure form looked like a ball of some sort that had simply opened up. There were hundreds of bone-like spikes on it that it was shooting out.

“Taylor! Blow that thing to hell!” the ODST lieutenant ordered.

“I’m out of rockets, LT!”

“Shit…” The lieutenant looked at the Flood pure form. “Shit! Tank forms incoming!”

Crystal looked ahead and saw two massive _things_ walking over. Each had no head, had tentacles of infection forms from its ‘mouth’, two small legs, and two massive ‘arms’ that it used as shields and rams.

“What do we do?” Crystal asked the ODST lieutenant.

The lieutenant sighed. “Everyone, fire at the ranged form,” he ordered. “Mike, you and I are going to engage those tank forms. Use grenades!”

The armed Dex Holders and two ODSTs started to concentrate fire against the ranged Flood pure form while the other two ODSTs rolled out of the way. Once they were safe from the ranged form by staying in the same line as the ranged form and the tank form, they got up to their feet and opened fire. The lieutenant had switched his specially customized marksman’s rifle to fully automatic and fired at the nearest tank form’s ‘head’. Once the prone Dex Holders and ODSTs got the ranged form’s attention, the lieutenant tossed his last grenade over at the ranged form to significantly damage it.

One of the tank forms started to roar as it spat out infection forms. The ODST lieutenant shot them as they came out while Mike tossed a grenade between the two tank forms.

Suddenly, Crystal screamed as a bone-like spike from the ranged form stabbed into her shoulder. Gold and Emerald instantly stopped firing and dragged Crystal further away from battle. The ODST lieutenant saw them and gritted his teeth. The unarmored Dex Holders would not last long at this rate…

“Crys, you okay?” Gold asked worriedly.

Crystal clenched her teeth but nodded. “Y – Yes, I’ll be okay. Keep shooting that pure form…”

The ODST lieutenant took two grenades from Mike and got ready. He quickly ran past the two tank forms and dashed straight towards the ranged form. The ranged form jumped a little to ‘face’ his direction and started to shoot the bone-like spikes. The trooper tossed a grenade at it and quickly sidestepped. Some of the spikes slightly bounced off his shoulder armor while one stabbed into it.

When the grenade exploded, the ranged form curled up into a ball to protect itself while it healed. Taking this time, the ODST ran up to it with his last grenade ready. The trooper stuck the primed grenade into the curled up pure form and jumped over it. He quickly dived out of the way as the grenade exploded, destroying the pure form.

The moment the ranged form died with a loud pained screech, the ODSTs and Dex Holders got up to their feet and concentrated fire at the two tank forms, which were way too close for grenades. But one had been damaged from the barrage of grenades earlier and soon toppled over dead. The remaining one charged towards the ODSTs and Dex Holders while they continuously fired.

Before the remaining tank form could swing its massive arm at the group, the ODST lieutenant jumped on its back and stabbed at its ‘head’ with his combat knife. The Flood pure form began to swing its massive arms around, trying to get the ODST off. The trooper had wrapped his legs around one of its arms and held onto the knife with one hand. With his free hand, he signaled Mike to toss him a grenade. The ODST did as told and the lieutenant caught it. The pure form continued to thrash around and staggered backwards.

“Smile, you ugly son of a bitch!” the trooper yelled once the monster was at enough distance away from the Dex Holders.

He then stuck the primed fragmentation grenade into the monster’s ‘mouth’, as deep as the grenade would go. He yanked his knife out and pushed off of the pure form’s arm so that he wouldn’t be hit by the monster’s swinging arms.

The grenade soon detonated, along with a chunk of the monster’s upper body. The monster took a step forward before it toppled over. The ODST lieutenant got up to his feet and sighed in relief. He then walked over to his allies to check on their condition.

Yellow and Blue were crying in front of Red’s body while Green and Silver watched silently. Crystal was groaning in pain while Gold and Emerald tried to see if they could remove the bone-like spike from her shoulder while Ruby and Sapphire held her down. Platinum had curled up into a ball on the ground, rocking back and forth while whimpering. Black sat next to her, staring ahead silently with a blank look. The other 3 ODSTs were busy reloading their weapons and checking over their gear.

The lieutenant walked towards Crystal and checked her injury. “Hold still and brace yourself,” he ordered as he grabbed onto the bone-like spike. Crystal clenched her eyes shut and held onto Gold’s hand as the ODST roughly yanked the spike out. He threw away the spike and signaled Taylor over. “Biofoam,” he said.

The big ODST gave him a canister of some sort and the lieutenant sprayed some thick foam on Crystal’s wound. The Dex Holder shuddered as she felt the bone-chilling sensation of the foam entering deep into her wound. But after the sensation faded, the pain disappeared and she could move her arm again.

“LT?” Taylor said as he looked at the spike sticking out of his superior’s arm.

“Huh? Oh… right.” The trooper yanked out the spike and carelessly tossed it aside. He didn’t bother with taking care of the minor injury and simply reloaded his weapons. “Let’s get moving.”

The big ODST looked at the Dex Holders. “I don’t think some of them can continue.”

The lieutenant crouched next to the Dex Holders. “Come on, you guys have been in worse situations than this, haven’t you?”

Blue wiped away her tears and stood up. “I don’t know… We never had to deal with losses of friends…”

The trooper looked over at Platinum, who seemed traumatized beyond hope. She was still frantically shaking her head as she rocked back and forth. The trooper sighed and stood up.

“Taylor, do you know what’s in that crashed ship?”

“Sure do, LT.”

“Run down the list.”

“The ship’s listed to have 1500 crewman. Given the nature of the crash, we have to assume that all 1500 are dead and are infected.”

“Great. 1500 zombies to dance with…” the lieutenant sighed out.

“The vehicle bay registered 3 AV-14 Attack VTOLs, 10 M12 LRVs, 4 M831 TTs, 5 M12G1 LAAVs, and… 2 M808B MBTs.”

The non-traumatized Dex Holders looked at the ODST lieutenant, wanting a translation for the military gibberish.

“… What the hell was that ship doing with all those vehicles?” the lieutenant asked. “So we have 3 Hornets, 10 good old fashioned Warthogs, 4 Troop ‘Hogs, 5 Gauss ‘Hogs, and… 2 Scorpion Tanks.”

“Yes.”

“… And there are 1500 Flood combat forms all around there.”

“… Yes.”

“Well, shit. This is going to be a hell of a night…” the lieutenant muttered as he paced around. “All right, this is what we’re going to do. We don’t have much time before _Saffron Station_ blows this place to hell. Trying to get to Sinnoh mainland is now out of the question as it’ll take too long. There’s only one thing we can do.” He looked at his squad. “You three, go to that crashed ship and recover some vehicles. Take silenced weapons and avoid combat if you can. I’m going to need one Troop ‘Hog and one Gauss ‘Hog and one regular. Think you can do it?”

“What about the tanks?”

“Destroy them. We don’t need the Flood driving tanks here. Destroy everything except for the vehicles we need.”

“Got it, LT. We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Taylor said as he started to jog.

The other two ODSTs followed, leaving the surviving Dex Holders and the lieutenant alone.

“So… what’s going on?” Crystal asked.

“We’re getting out of here, that’s what,” the trooper replied as he scanned the area. Realizing that the Dex Holders would need descriptions of the vehicles, he continued. “A Hornet is a lightly armored aircraft. Though its twin heavy autocannons and twin missile launchers would be quite useful, it doesn’t have enough seats for all of you. A Scorpion tank doesn’t have enough seats and it’s too slow for fast evacuation. Warthogs are basically jeeps with various weapons attached. A Troop ‘Hog has no such weapons, but it can carry at most 10 passengers if we rearrange some parts. The regular Warthog has a mounted chaingun while the Gauss ‘Hog has the Gauss Cannon. We need those for the firepower and mobility.”

“And how are we going to escape?” Sapphire asked. “You said that going to Sinnoh mainland was out of the question.”

“We’re going to drive up to Stark Mountain,” the trooper replied. “Once we’re there, we’re going to call for evac. Flood infection forms are quite frail. They’ll die in the heat of the volcano. Anyways, we’ll call for airlift out of here when we get to the highest point of Stark Mountain. Flood combat forms will have difficulty following us there, and as long as the dropship stays high above the surface, no Flood forms can reach it.”

Once the trooper was satisfied that the area was clear (for now), he approached some of the Dex Holders to calm them. He sat beside Black first, who was still staring blankly into the distance.

“I can’t believe… Miss President’s gone,” the Unova Dex Holder muttered.

“I know. But listen, you can’t sulk forever. What happened happened. Move on.”

“How?”

“What I tend to do is think about revenge,” the trooper replied. “It worked for me and it worked for my sister when we killed those who killed our parents. You can have revenge against the Flood by surviving. You won’t let them infect you, and you can laugh at them when they get incinerated by the Super MAC round.”

Black looked at him. The mirrored visor felt rather uncomfortable, seeing how it made it impossible for him to see the trooper’s face. The trooper appeared cold and heartless thanks to that.

“What is this Super MAC anyways?”

“To put it simply, it’s an enormous railgun. It’ll fire a 3000 ton slug between 12 000 and 150 000 km/s, depending on the version, and the energy alone will vaporize everything here. There’s going to be a big-ass hole in the ground, but that’s another problem.”

“So… once that thing fires, no more tragedies like this?”

“No more.”

Black sighed. “Thanks…”

The trooper nodded and moved on to the next traumatized Dex Holder. He sat in front of Platinum, who didn’t seem to have blinked once since Diamond… exploded. She continuously rocked back and forth while hugging her knees, whimpering and occasionally shaking her head. Before the trooper said anything, she spoke first.

“… We are all going to die…”

The trooper pretended to think. “… Yeah. But not here. I don’t know about you, but I intend to die on a bed, at home, many years from now.”

“D – Diamond… he died b – because of… me…” the heiress mumbled. “Pearl too… if… if only I was stronger… he would not have died… And Diamond… he would not have…” She started to sob uncontrollably as her mind recalled her boyfriend’s fate and his remnants, which were still on the ground only a few meters away.

“Try not to think about that,” the trooper said. “He died protecting you. He wanted you to survive. And if you don’t, then he died for no reason. Think about _that_.”

Platinum looked at her reflection in the trooper’s mirrored visor and blinked. “For… For Diamond?”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

The heiress still looked very distraught, but appeared a little less insane. She still hugged her knees and trembled violently, but she wasn’t rocking back and forth or frantically shaking her head. The trooper then moved on to Yellow, but Blue and Green have already calmed her down a little. The trooper looked at all of the Dex Holders and spoke, as an important thought has occurred.

“Who’s the best driver here?”

Blue looked at him. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we’re going to have 3 vehicles, 2 mounted guns, but only 4 ODSTs. Now, I suck at driving, so I’ll be manning one gun, and I’ll have another from my squad manning the other since we’ll need as much firepower as possible. Which means, we’re going to need one additional driver.”

Green glanced at all of the others before speaking. “I’m your driver then. Out of all of us, Blue and I are the only ones with driving experience. And I can say that I’m better.”

Blue looked over at him. “Well… I don’t know about you being better. But you do have better reaction.”

A few minutes later, the 3 ODSTs returned, each driving a vehicle. The lieutenant walked up to them as they parked.

“Special delivery for the vehicles you ordered, LT,” Taylor said as he hopped off.

“What about the other vehicles? Did you destroy them?”

“There weren’t a lot of vehicles left intact,” Eddie replied. “But we destroyed the 3 Hornets and the rest of the Warthogs.”

“And the tanks?” the lieutenant asked.

“That’s… the problem,” Mike answered. “We found one Scorpion mangled by the crash. But we couldn’t find the other. But there were tank treads on the ground near the crashed ship.”

The lieutenant sighed. “Well then. It’s a good thing we have a Gauss ‘Hog. Mount up, troopers. We’re getting the hell out of here.” He jumped onto back of the Gauss ‘Hog and held onto the turret. “Taylor, you man the chaingun. Mike, you drive my ‘Hog and Eddie, drive the other one.”

Green watched the ODSTs get into the vehicles and climbed onto the driver’s seat of the untouched vehicle. Blue walked over to the rear of the vehicle and helped the other Dex Holders climb aboard. The rear of the Troop ‘Hog was big enough to carry up to 5 fully armored soldiers. But with a few small Dex Holders, such as Sapphire, Emerald, Yellow, and Platinum, there was enough space for 8 Dex Holders to climb aboard.

Blue sat in the passenger seat of the Troop ‘Hog, Silver in the Gauss ‘Hog, and Black in the regular Warthog. The ODST lieutenant charged his Gauss Cannon.

“All right. Eddie, you’re in the lead. Troop ‘Hog is next, and Mike, you follow them. Taylor, shred any and all Flood and call out any and all vehicles. I’ve got your…” he suddenly trailed off and froze.

The Dex Holders looked at him, wondering what was happening. Thanks to the fully clad ODST armor and the mirrored visor, no one could tell whether he was staring ahead, about to sneeze, bit his tongue, or listening to something.

“Lieutenant? What’s up?” Mike asked, looking back from his driver’s seat.

The lieutenant shook his head. “The brass on the _Saffron Station_ have decided. In three hours, they’re going to fire the Super MAC. So we have to get the hell out of here in that time. I thought that we’d be out of here when that decision was made, but apparently not. So let’s hurry and get to Stark Mountain. Go!”

* * *

**Current Dex Holder KIA/Infected list: Red, Diamond, Pearl, White.**


	9. Containment - Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last part of the mini series. This was first uploaded on November 22, 2012.

Chapter 18: Containment Part 3

May 1, 12 am, Route 229, Sinnoh…

“… Do you think we’ll make it out of here?” Blue asked Green as she stared at the regular Warthog that was driving in front of her.

“Of course,” Green replied.

“But we lost so many of our friends,” the girl said with a sigh. “And we’re nowhere close to escaping.”

“Try not to think about it.”

Blue turned to look at him. “Green, listen… if… if I don’t make it…”

“Don’t talk, Blue,” Green said quickly to cut her off. “I need to concentrate on driving.”

Both Kanto Dex Holders focused on the path ahead when the ODST manning the Warthog’s gun started to fire. Blue quickly ducked into cover when a small swarm of Flood combat forms started to fire their weapons at the three Warthogs. But their assault rifle and pistol shots did barely any damage to the Warthogs’ armor and the combat forms were shredded by the high caliber rounds of the regular Warthog’s gun.

Gold kept his arm around Crystal in the back of the Troop ‘Hog, ready to push her into cover if something dangerous was to happen. But so far, absolutely nothing seemed particularly dangerous now that they were inside a vehicle. So it seemed that no more Dex Holders were going to die.

“RPG!” one of the ODSTs yelled all of a sudden.

All three Warthogs quickly jerked to the side and narrowly dodged the incoming rocket. The ODST lieutenant on the Gauss Cannon aimed his weapon at the rocket launcher toting Flood combat form and fired before the zombie (well, parasite) could shoot again. The hypersonic shot of the Gauss Cannon obliterated the combat form along with its rocket launcher in a blink of an eye.

“Scorpion!” the driver ODST of the regular Warthog yelled out.

Everyone looked ahead and could see a large scorpion-shaped tank (hence the name) sitting in a ditch off the main road. Just as the three Warthogs drove past, a Flood combat form entered the tank and started to drive it. The moment it did, the tank fired its main 90 mm cannon at the Warthogs.

“Oh, shit!” the ODST lieutenant muttered as the tank’s shell nearly missed him. He took aim with his Gauss Cannon and fired as fast as he could.

Even with the Gauss Cannon firing hypersonic shells twice every second, the tank still chased the Warthogs, with its main cannon and the attached machine gun firing. The tank’s main 90 mm shells missed, but some of the machine gun shots hit the Warthogs. The Dex Holders in the Troop ‘Hog took cover, but one of the tank’s machine gun shot pierced through the armor and hit Sapphire on the leg.

“Ah!” the girl screamed in pain as she clutched at her wound. The bullet’s speed has been reduced quite a bit when it pierced through the armor, so it wasn’t strong enough to rip the leg off.

Ruby quickly examined the wound and tried to see if he could stop the bleeding. He needed something long and soft… He looked over at Platinum, who seemed to be on the verge of losing her sanity again. The heiress was again, curled up into a ball, trembling violently (and not because of the Warthog driving over the rough road). Ruby quickly took Platinum’s scarf off of her and wrapped it around Sapphire’s wounded leg.

“Are you okay, Sapphire?” Ruby asked once Platinum’s scarf was tightly wrapped over the wound.

Sapphire had a tear falling from her eye which she quickly wiped away. She clenched her teeth and her bloody hands.

“Y – Yeah… I’ll be okay…”

“Uh… lieutenant, do you see that?” Mike asked as he stared ahead.

The ODST lieutenant finished delivering the final Gauss Cannon shot at the Scorpion tank and swiveled his gun to the front. He temporarily froze at the sight.

“Oh, shit… that’s a _lot_ of zombies…” he muttered before he started to fire his Gauss Cannon.

In the narrow paths of Route 228, there were seemingly hundreds of Flood combat forms blocking the paths and waiting on top of the raised cliff sides on either side of the road. But at least these combat forms weren’t armed.

“We’re going to mow through them!” Eddie yelled as he slammed his foot on the accelerator. “It’s a good thing we still have a windshield!”

He gave Black his silenced SMG and the Unova Dex Holder fired it at the oncoming horde of reanimated bodies. The Warthog’s gun fired continuously, occasionally stopping to prevent overheating.

“RPG!” the driving ODST yelled again.

Taylor aimed his Warthog gun ahead and saw the Flood combat form far ahead firing the rocket. He used that to his advantage. He fired at the incoming rocket and it exploded right above a horde of combat forms, blowing them up to rotting pieces. It was a good thing those rockets were clearly visible in the night thanks to the glowing red rocket exhaust.

But even with the rocket launcher toting combat form down, there were lots of other armed Flood nearby. The Warthogs still plowed on, mowing them down as they tried to jump in front. The assault rifle carrying combat forms mindlessly fired, many of the bullets hitting other combat forms as they jumped at the Warthogs.

“Ah!” Blue shrieked as a bullet shattered the windshield in front of her. She quickly shook the shattered glass off of her, being careful to not cut herself on the sharp edges.

“Blue, take the wheel for a second,” came Green’s voice from her left.

Blue grabbed on the steering wheel and kept it steady as told. She took a quick glance at Green and saw… blood. She then realized that Green had both hands pressing against his right side…

“G – Green!” she exclaimed in horror.

“I’m fine,” the Gym Leader said.

Blue could see a lot of blood and she started to panic. “No, no, no…” she muttered as she began to dig through her bag with her right hand. She kept her left hand on the steering wheel to keep the vehicle steady. She soon took out her handkerchief and a pack of soft tissues. “Here… Move your hands.”

Green grabbed onto the steering wheel again while Blue tried to stop the bleeding on his wound. “Pesky girl, I said I was fine.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to die,” Blue said as she started to tremble. “I – I already lost my best friend and my favorite junior. I don’t want to lose you too…” Once she finished with the makeshift _field dressing_ , she wrapped her scarf (which she brought in case of a visit to Snowpoint City) around the wound. She stared at his blood on her hands and started to sob. “Platinum’s right… we’re not going to make it…”

“Blue, we’ll be fine. I told you.”

Blue shook her head. “No… I can feel it… I’m not going to make it for sure…” She closed her eyes as more tears fell. “White, my favorite junior… She had so much potential. She was basically my successor in our group, and she died first… Red, my best friend… I can’t believe he’s gone. Dia and Pearl… the two youngest Dex Holders… they’re dead too!”

“Get a hold of yourself, Blue.”

“Don’t you get it?!” Blue snapped at him. “Everyone’s starting to die here! And we can’t even put up a fight! These… _things_ aren’t like any enemy we’ve faced, and we just can’t win!”

“Blue, seriously. Get a hold of yourself. We already have one Dex Holder who’s losing her mind. For the survivors, and as their senior, _you_ of all people need to stay collected. If you panic and lose your sanity, everyone else will. So _stay calm_.”

“Just… just promise me,” Blue said. “If I die… please take good care of Silver.”

Green looked into her eyes and nodded. “Very well.” He figured that he needed to get her to calm down any way he could. Blue seemed to get a little relieved from his answer.

“Thank you…”

…

An hour and a half later, Stark Mountain, Sinnoh…

…

“There it is!” Eddie exclaimed. “Stark Mountain’s right there!”

The ODST lieutenant looked on top of the mountain and sighed in relief when he saw a small aircraft hovering high above the tip of the mountain. “There’s our ride.”

The three Warthogs soon parked on the mountain as high as they could go and everyone got off. Ruby supported Sapphire and helped her off, as she wasn’t able to walk on her own anymore. Green simply shrugged off his injury (with help of the ODSTs’ biofoam) while Blue tried her best to remain calm and collected. But just as everyone got out of the vehicles and started to climb the mountain, the ODST lieutenant shouted a warning.

“Rockets incoming!” he yelled as he quickly forced some of the Dex Holders to get down on the ground. Just then, _five_ rockets flew from the shadows far away and destroyed the three Warthogs. The trooper got back up and fired at the shadows with his specially ordered marksman’s rifle. “Go, go, go!” he ordered to the rest.

But even as the group climbed, the danger was far from over. Blue quickly climbed the volcanic mountain, being careful to examine the paths ahead for any Flood combat forms. Just as she was certain that there weren’t any threats ahead, a high caliber bullet hit her in the chest and pierced through her back, tearing out a large chunk of her shirt and her flesh. Blue gasped and remained standing for a second before she collapsed on the ground.

“Sniper!” one of the ODSTs yelled as he took cover.

Silver froze upon seeing Blue fall. “Sis!” he yelled as he tried to run towards her.

“No!” one of the ODSTs yelled. He quickly forced Silver to take cover. “Get down, there’s a sniper out there!”

“What do we do?” Crystal asked as she pressed her body against a large rock for cover.

Just then, there was a terribly loud and piercing screech that echoed throughout Stark Mountain. It sounded awfully like a baby shrieking, but… terribly creepy. The moment the screech ended, a swarm of Flood combat forms dropped down from the mountain above. Chaos immediately pursued as the ODSTs and Dex Holders did their best to fight off the horde. But this fight wasn’t nearly as simple.

Ruby shot a combat form that had its back to him and was about to fire at another one when a new combat form dropped from above. Before the Hoenn Dex Holder could react, the combat form shot him first at point blank range with a shotgun.

Sapphire screamed in horror and anger as Ruby dropped in front of her. “Ruby! No! You bastards!” She rapidly shot the combat form and was about to hobble towards Ruby’s body when another combat form struck her on the shoulder from behind. The girl hit the ground a few meters away and she snapped out of her daze just when an infection form stabbed into her chest…

Black tried to rush to assist Sapphire as she got infected. But before he could kill the infection form, one jumped onto his back and started to dig. The Unova Dex Holder could not do anything as the infection form was on his back and not in front of him.

“No, no, no!” Black yelled through clenched teeth as the infection form took him.

But there was nothing he could do as the infection form gained control of his body. Maybe it was his luck, but the infection form seemed more interested in accessing the Unova Dex Holder’s memories than gaining complete control over the body. Black could feel it. His mind’s unwanted guest was starting to steal his memories. His hometown, childhood, childhood friends, his travels, everything. The infection form was accessing them one by one and brutally tore them away.

The Flood form then moved on to the memories the Dex Holder was guarding the most. In his mind, Black saw the one person he cared about the most. White… Since her death, Black deemed his unfortunately limited memories of her as his most precious memories. Her rather surprised expression when they first met in Accumula Town, her usual confident look throughout most of their travels, her crushed look of despair after that event in Nimbasa City, loneliness and depression during their separation in Gear Station, happiness and excitement during their reunion, and even her look of concern and care during his crisis in the Pokémon League. Each memory was finite and precious and the Flood infection form was ripping them away.

‘ _I will not let you have her!_ ’ Black yelled in his mind as he was no longer capable of physical speech. ‘ _I will not let you have her!_ ’

The infection form ignored him and continued to tear through the memories. Soon, Black couldn’t remember anything about his former girlfriend prior to her attire-change… He couldn’t even remember when she confessed to him. Or did he confess to her? He couldn’t remember anymore.

‘ _No… I will not let you have her!_ ’ Black yelled again. ‘ _I… will **not** let you have her!_ ’

Another memory of White was brought up in his mind. His battered mind couldn’t determine when exactly the memory was from, but in there, White was in her new attire and she was looking at him rather nervously. She seemed to be holding something behind her and sheepishly stepped closer. Her cheeks were reddish pink and she kept looking at the ground. She appeared very nervous and anxious as she twirled her right foot on the ground, and she looked unbelievably cute in total. She timidly looked up at him and spoke, but no sound came out as Black no longer remembered what exactly she said to him. She flashed him a beautifully bright smile as she presented him what she was holding behind her. But before she did, the entire image of her started to darken in his memories as the infection form tore away the scene from his mind. The girl’s image turned darker and darker until all that was left was a silhouette. The silhouette remained for a couple of seconds before it faded as well.

Black could no longer remember what her smile looked like, or how her voice sounded. Or her name, for that matter. Who was she again? Was she a friend?

‘ _I will not let you have her!_ ’ Black yelled again despite not remembering who he was thinking about.

The Flood infection form accessed a memory from the Dex Holder that he wanted to get rid of. In that memory, an unfamiliar girl was screaming for help as an infection form tore its way into her body. The girl kept screaming as she was steadily turned into a combat form. Her left arm was blown off by a shotgun shortly after the infection and the reanimated body was shot down in front of him. The memory stopped at a scene in which Black was looking at the frozen face of agony of the former girl. Perhaps to torture him some more, the infection form that was inside him didn’t rip away that particular memory and instead, let him keep it.

Black shifted his focus away from his compromised memories and instead, to his surroundings. He could see the reanimated bodies of Ruby and Sapphire charge towards Emerald, forcing the last remaining Hoenn Dex Holder to shoot down his closest friends. An infection form had apparently infected Blue during the attack and the reanimated body was shot down by Green. The remaining Dex Holders seemed to be in panic as more of their friends have been assimilated by the Flood. Black was about to mindlessly trudge towards them when his foot touched a grenade that was dropped by a combat form during the attack. Suddenly, another piece of memory echoed in his mind as the infection form stole it.

_“You can have revenge against the Flood by surviving. You won’t let them infect you…”_

‘ _Revenge…_ ’ Black muttered in his mind as he picked up the grenade. ‘ _Revenge… For Red, for Blue, for Ruby, for Sapphire, for Diamond, for Pearl, and for… that girl…_ ’ He pulled the pin on the fragmentation grenade. ‘ _I will not let you have her…_ ’ he muttered as he slowly walked towards the infected bodies of Blue, Ruby, and Sapphire. The three infected bodies were being re-infected by infection forms and were thrashing around as the new host gained control. ‘ _I will not let you have her…_ ’ Black muttered as he used his feet to keep the thrashing bodies on the ground. He then dropped the primed grenade right in the middle of all three bodies and simply dropped on top of it. ‘ _I will not let you have **me**._ ’

All the ODSTs and the Dex Holders shot down the last remaining Flood when a grenade detonated and shredded four Flood combat forms into pieces. The explosion showered the area with pieces of Flood biomass and deteriorating human bones along with a slight ‘rain’ of Flood blood and human blood. The Dex Holders took cover from the bloody rain while the ODSTs wiped their visors clean.

The ODST lieutenant picked up a rocket launcher from the ground and shouldered it. He was about to approached the shocked and traumatized Dex Holders when a sniper shot hit the rock he was taking cover behind.

“LT, there’s a sniper roughly 10 meters above, 130 meters across, and 3 meters right to your position,” Taylor said after taking a glance at the Flood sniper.

“I got it,” the lieutenant said as he prepared his rocket launcher. “I’ll give it my ‘Go to hell’ present.”

The trooper jumped out of cover and fired the rocket launcher twice, using both tubes. The Flood sniper didn’t shoot as it was busy reloading its sniper rifle. Once the Flood sniper was blown to tiny bits, the ODST lieutenant dropped the empty rocket launcher and reloaded his weapons. He sighed as he saw the surviving Dex Holders. Green and Silver simply stared ahead with a blank look. Blue’s death and infection was very hard on them, especially Silver. Yellow and Platinum were crying as they embraced each other, as they couldn’t handle the deaths of so many Dex Holders. Gold and Crystal were doing their best to calm Emerald who was very distraught at the fact that he had to shoot his closest friends upon their infection.

“We have to keep going,” he said. “We have less than an hour to get the hell out of here before this whole place is blown to hell.”

The ODSTs all reloaded their weapons and prepared to move out. Some of the Dex Holders snapped out of their depression and shock and forced the others to do the same. Crystal embraced Emerald and steadily started to climb Stark Mountain. Green and Silver, quite upset with Blue’s death, simply forced Yellow up to her feet and basically dragged her behind them. Gold did the same with Platinum and quickly followed Crystal. With the ODSTs leading the group, they all quickly climbed towards Stark Mountain’s tip, where the dropship waited for them.

As the group approached, the ship started to swing left and right violently, as if there was some kind of a fight in the cockpit. But after a short while, the ship stabilized and a body fell out of the opening of the ship. After that little event, the ship returned to its post and hovered high above the tip of Stark Mountain.

Gold approached Crystal while continuing to climb. “Hey Crys, you doing okay?” he asked.

Crystal glanced at him and pretended to be fine despite the fact that she had her good hand pressed firmly against the wound on her shoulder. The effect of the biofoam was wearing off and she was starting to bleed again.

“I – I think I’m fine…”

“Hey, LT!” Gold yelled. The ODST lieutenant looked back at him. “I think Crys needs some help here!”

The trooper approached the two Johto Dex Holders and examined Crystal’s wound. “She needs medical attention soon.”

“Don’t you have that foam thing?” Gold asked.

“Ran out,” the trooper answered as he resumed his hike. “So that’s another reason we need to hurry!”

The ODSTs and surviving Dex Holders arrived near the tip of Stark Mountain 10 minutes later. Once they did, the back hatch of the dropship opened and a long length of rope dropped down.

“Okay, girls up first,” the ODST lieutenant ordered.

As the youngest out of all of the survivors, Platinum was up first. Still with a blank expression, she grabbed onto the rope and the people on the dropship began to pull the rope upwards. The ship maintained its altitude above the mountain to prevent any Flood forms from secretly attaching onto the ship.

After Platinum boarded the ship, the rope was dropped again and Yellow grabbed onto it. But just as the girl reached the dropship, another creepy screech echoed around. The screech was the same as the one that came immediately before a large Flood invasion, so the Dex Holders and the ODSTs below the ship prepared themselves. But maybe it was because the group was so high up the mountain, there were only a handful of Flood combat forms attacking. They were shot down pretty quickly, but one still managed to fire a rocket at the group before falling into the volcano.

The ODSTs all quickly dived out of the way to escape the rocket’s blast radius. Following Blue’s last wish, Green grabbed Silver and quickly forced him to safety. Crystal pushed Emerald to safety as well. The rocket headed straight towards Crystal and Gold realized it. With one hand, he roughly pushed her backwards while he jumped forward, into the path of the rocket. He knew that dodging the rocket wasn’t going to help at all. The explosion would still kill Crystal and Emerald. But if he was to… take the rocket hit before it reached its intended target zone, then the two Dex Holders would be safe from the blast…

Crystal screamed when Gold simply exploded a few meters in front of her, showering the area with his blood and pieces of his body. “N – No, no! NO!”

“Shit…” the ODST lieutenant muttered. “Another one down…” He looked at the survivors. “Hurry up and get on the Pelican!”

Once Yellow boarded the Pelican dropship, the rope dropped again. This time, Emerald wrapped his Magic Hand Extensors around Crystal and grabbed onto the rope afterwards. The Johto Dex Holder was simply trembling in shock from her closest friend’s sacrificial (and horrible) death and with her injury, there was no way that she would be able to hold onto the rope for a safe extraction.

After the two Dex Holders were on the dropship, two long ropes dropped down, since there were enough people in the ship to pull in two people at once. Within 5 minutes, all of the surviving Dex Holders were on board and the last ODST was being pulled inside.

Inside the dropship, the Dex Holders could see a girl wearing skintight black clothes and something similar to Blue’s Silph Scope over her eyes. Her long black hair was tied back, with the tip reaching down to her elbows. She currently had a silenced pistol aimed out of the dropship, in case a Flood form came close.

Mike and Taylor finished pulling the ODST lieutenant into the dropship. The lieutenant looked back with his marksman’s rifle aimed out of the dropship as the hatch closed. Once it did and the dropship started to fly, he got to his feet and looked into the center. He froze upon seeing the girl with the silenced pistol.

“What the… What are you doing here?” he asked as his helmet’s visor turned transparent. “Aren’t you supposed to be in Lilycove City?”

The girl put her silenced pistol back in the holster next to her combat knife and raised her goggles onto her forehead. “I was, but… here I am!” She smiled at the trooper. “I’m really glad you’re okay, brother.”

The trooper looked at his sister and noticed quite a bit of blood on her clothes. “Sora, what happened to you?”

“Oh, it’s not my blood,” the girl said as she looked down at her clothes. “It’s the pilot’s. He tried to abandon all of you and I had to kill him to stop him.”

“Who’s flying right now?” the trooper asked.

“The co-pilot,” Sora answered. “He’ll be fine.” She then looked at her brother’s armor, which was nearly covered in crimson human blood and even Flood blood. “You were in quite a mess, brother.”

The trooper looked at his armor and shrugged. He sat down next to the surviving Dex Holders and took off his helmet. “What can I say? It was a hell of a night.” He looked towards the cockpit of the dropship. “Hey, new pilot!” he shouted so that the new pilot could hear him over the roar of the engines.

“Yes sir?”

“How are we doing right now?”

“We are heading away from Sinnoh, no particular destination. Thrusters are at maximum. They’ll burn out in an hour, but we only need to keep at this pace for another… 25 minutes!”

“Good. Keep it up!”

Sora looked at the surviving Dex Holders. “… White didn’t make it, did she?”

Her brother sighed. “… No… She was infected by the Flood before I could get to them. I… put her out of her misery.”

She sat beside her brother and put a hand on the one part of the shoulder armor that didn’t have any blood on it. “You tried your best.”

“Still… Nine died. Over half are dead…”

“You’ve been in missions that had fewer survivors than this,” Sora said in a comforting tone. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Especially given how you still managed to save six in a Flood outbreak…”

The trooper shook his head. He simply put his helmet back on and had the visor turn opaque again so no one could see his expression. “Anyways… what exactly are you doing here? It’s extremely risky here, damn it.”

“… I was on a mission when the Admiral told me what happened here. A large ship crashed in the Battle Zone of Sinnoh and you were apparently dropped to lock the area down. But then a few hours later, I heard that there were lots of gunshots and combat near the ship and I was worried about you. So I was pulled out and I called for a ride here to help you.” Sora sighed. “You know as well as I do that if anything was to happen to you, I wouldn’t be able to live on knowing that I could’ve helped. And I know that you feel the same, seeing how whenever I’m on a mission, you’re in your pod in _Cerulean Sky_ , ready to be dropped into my location if I need help.”

“Hm. I guess you’re right,” the trooper muttered. “I once asked if I could be dropped into your location to support you in your mission and… clearly, my request was denied.”

The girl shook her head. “Of course it was denied. A SOEIV pod crashing through the roof of a building is not very stealthy, you know.”

“… The pod doesn’t crash _through_ the ceiling. It just… makes a massive dent, that’s all…”

25 minutes later, as the ODST lieutenant talked to his sister and the other ODSTs tried to comfort the traumatized Dex Holders, the new pilot of the dropship spoke through the intercom.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking,” he said, copying the tone of an airplane pilot. “We have reached our destination of… nowhere. If you look through the opening blood tray, you can see the _Saffron Station_ ’s Super MAC round about to incinerate all of Sinnoh.”

The people in the dropship all looked towards the back where the hatch was opening. Far away, they could see Sinnoh, appearing perfectly calm and normal. A massive ball of fire suddenly fell from the sky and hit Sinnoh, creating a very large explosion that seemed to shake the entire planet. The sky around Sinnoh turned reddish orange from the hellish flames created by the energy exerted by a 3000 ton tungsten shell impacting the Battle Zone of Sinnoh with a speed greater than 12 000 km/s. Not even 10 seconds after the first Super MAC round hit the Battle Zone, another shot hit the Sinnoh mainland for precaution. Everyone in all of Sinnoh have already been evacuated, but in case any Flood managed to escape the Battle Zone, all of the region had to be incinerated.

Platinum watched her home region being completely destroyed. She closed her eyes and let her tears fall. There was no way that she would ever forget this day… Her best friend, boyfriend, seniors, juniors, and now her home…

Once the incineration was complete, the hatch (also known as the blood tray) closed. The dropship began to climb rapidly as it accelerated towards the sky.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking again,” the pilot spoke through the intercom again. “We have just received orders to return to _Cerulean Sky_. ETA is 2 hours. Please buckle your seatbelts and keep your seats, trays, and weapons in their upright positions. If you feel the urge to vomit… please don’t, as the experience will be unpleasant to everyone around you. Thank you for flying with the Navy today and I hope you enjoy the rest of the flight.”

“Everyone, listen to me,” the ODST lieutenant said as he looked at all of the Dex Holders. “Once we get to _Cerulean Sky_ , you will all receive medical treatment and time with combat psychiatrists for trauma. And during your stay, we will try our best to help you forget this event.”

“… Forget?” Silver muttered. He smirked. “This isn’t the kind of thing we can forget. Sis… I’ve known her for as long as I can remember… And now she’s gone. I’ll never forget it and I’ll never be able to live it down…”

“We’ll help you get over it,” the lieutenant said. “It helps, trust me.”

“Yeah. It really does help,” Sora added.

Crystal let out a long shuddering sigh. “Even if we won’t be able to forget this day ever, at least… at least it’s finally over,” she said as she closed her eyes. “Red, Blue, Ruby, Sapphire, Dia, Pearl, Black, White, and… Gold… you can all rest in peace…”

* * *

**Final Dex Holder KIA/Infected list: Red, Blue, Gold, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, Pearl, Black, White.**


	10. Christmas Special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on Decemeber 25, 2012. Hence the title.

Chapter 10: Christmas Special

December 24, New Bark Town, 8 pm…

Crystal stared at the sky as tons of large snowflakes simply poured down to the ground. There was already half a meter of snow on the ground, but it kept snowing. Heavy, _heavy_ snowfall this year. But it wasn’t windy, so it wasn’t too cold.

Before long, the door to Gold’s house opened and the goggled boy appeared, wondering who could be visiting.

“Huh? Super Serious Gal? What are you doing here?”

Crystal spun around to face Gold. “Hi, Gold. It’s Christmas tomorrow, and you know what that means, don’t you?”

Gold began to think for a few seconds. “… You want me to give you a nice gift?” he tried as he let Crystal enter his house.

“That’d be nice, but I’m thinking of something else,” Crystal said with a short laugh. “Throughout the year, our juniors have come to me on several occasions because of… well, you.”

Gold groaned a little. “Not this again, Super Serious Gal. You told me this last month. And the month before!”

“I know. But this time, I have an idea. As a way for you to compensate for being such a jerk to them on occasion, how about you use this Christmas to secretly deliver meaningful gifts to them? They’re all gathered around central Kanto for the party we planned tomorrow, so it wouldn’t be that hard to get to them.”

“… Do I have to think of the gifts too?”

“Kind of,” Crystal answered. “I already got the gifts. But you’re going to have to tell me what gift would be best suited for what junior. That way, you’ll get to think of them a little more.” She reached into her bag and pulled out the first gift box. “This is a picture we all took together. Every Dex Holder is in here.”

“… And that’s a gift?”

Crystal nodded. “Yeah. This will mean a lot to one of our juniors, but… basically nothing to everyone else. It will give him or her the idea that he or she is not alone and that we’ll always be with him or her. So, to whom would this gift be the most meaningful?”

Gold began to think. Which Dex Holder wanted to belong and be a part of a family? Hmm… Obviously it was-

“Bossy Gal.”

Crystal shook her head with a sigh. “Really Gold? You think White is the one who feels alone and wants to be a part of something? The Dex Holder I had in mind is an orphan.”

“… Fashion Boy?”

“No, you idiot. _Emerald_. His wish for the longest time was just to have friends. This gift will be very significant to him. We’ll be giving him the thought that he’s wanted and we all care for him.”

Crystal tried a few more times with other gifts, but Gold got every single one of them wrong. He guessed Platinum for a set of winter clothes. The heiress already _had_ a set of winter clothes (without pants, but still) and she was quite tolerant of the cold. After all, the heiress did go from Snowpoint City to Lake Acuity _without_ her coat, wearing her usual sleeveless dress.

“… Maybe I’ll go with you,” Crystal said with another sigh. “Knowing you, you’ll just screw up everything.”

Gold shrugged. “Probably.”

Crystal proceeded to push Gold upstairs towards his room. “Get changed, Gold. You don’t want our juniors to recognize you in those clothes, do you?”

Upstairs, Crystal waited outside while Gold changed in his room. She looked down at her clothes, wondering if she needed to change as well so her juniors wouldn’t recognize her if they spot her.

Gold soon came back out, wearing his new clothes. He was now wearing a black jacket, matching pants, and a ski mask…

“No one will recognize me now, right Crys?”

Crystal couldn’t help but laugh. “No one will recognize you. They’ll just call the police because you look like a burglar… or worse.”

“This is the best I can do here.”

“No clothes that remotely resemble Santa Claus?”

“Nope.”

“Well then. It’s time we hit the costume shop. You’re buying.”

…

4 hours later, Saffron City, December 25, 12:30 am…

…

Gold and Crystal landed near the rented lodge of the Hoenn Dex Holders. Though both Dex Holders were dressed in “Santa” attire, they still had dark masks over their faces. It was Gold’s argument that their juniors would still recognize them if their faces were visible. Crystal wanted to argue that they’d look like burglars, but let it slide. After all, all she had to do was not get spotted.

The two Dex Holders quietly approached the lodge, with Gold carrying a bag full of present boxes. He looked at the lodge for a little bit before turning to face Crystal.

“So Crys, how are we going to get inside?” he asked. “Do we just climb down the chimney?”

Crystal looked up at the chimney and shook her head. “Look at that. Smoke. Our juniors have the fireplace active. If we climb down there, we’ll be roasted alive.”

“So what then?” Gold asked. He observed Crystal’s thinking expression and grinned. “You didn’t think this far ahead, did you?”

The girl appeared quite embarrassed. “Shut up… I was busy thinking of the meaningful gifts, all right? I didn’t have time to think of _how_ we were going to deliver the gifts.” Crystal let out a long sigh as she picked up a rock. “I’m going to hate myself for doing this… Gold, we have to hurry, so get ready.”

Crystal threw the rock at the window closest to the door, shattering it. Gold quickly entered through the shattered window and opened the door from the inside. Crystal entered and both Johto Dex Holders quickly and silently made their way towards the living room.

They soon spotted the Christmas tree beside the active fireplace. Normally a fire hazard, but the lodge was built with that risk in mind. Everything within two meters from the fireplace was absolutely fireproof.

Crystal was just about to pick the Hoenn Dex Holders’ gifts from the bag Gold was carrying when someone suddenly yelled.

“INTRUDER!”

Both Johto Dex Holders jumped in surprise and looked to the right, where Sapphire was repeatedly yelling while charging closer. Crystal noticed that Sapphire was behaving like an absolutely pissed off Tauros, as the girl was knocking over furniture in her path as she recklessly and dangerously charged. Having failed to recognize her seniors under their disguise (and Crystal’s usual perfume was masked by the smell of the active fireplace), the Hoenn Dex Holder leapt towards Crystal, knocking her down to the ground.

Crystal quickly grabbed onto her junior’s wrists to prevent her from mauling her. The Johto Dex Holder knew that she would get knocked out in one hit from her junior. Hell, she could even _die_ depending on where the Hoenn Dex Holder aimed. So Crystal tried her absolute best to keep her juniors’ fists away from her. Sapphire was way too strong, however. Within a couple of seconds, Sapphire had pinned both of her senior’s hands with one hand and aimed a punch with the other.

Crystal tried to free her hands, but to no avail. Her junior was too damn strong. How did she get so strong, anyways? Even without that brute strength, the Johto Dex Holder doubted that she’d be able to focus enough to free herself. Sapphire was basically snarling in rage that reminded her of a Garchomp about to hack its prey into many pieces. That deadly glare from that fiery blue eyes, horribly sharp fangs, tightened fist that seemingly resembled Metagross’s Meteor Mash… _damn_ she was scary…

But before the near fatal punch hit and broke something, Sapphire fell over to her side unconscious. Crystal looked and saw that Gold had whacked the Hoenn Dex Holder on the back of her head with his billiard cue (that had been painted over to appear like a big candy cane).

Crystal was about to rush over to check on her junior’s condition when she heard footsteps coming from the stairs. Gold quickly dropped three present boxes near the Christmas tree and both Johto Dex Holders quickly ran out of the lodge before Ruby and Emerald could get to the scene.

“Well, that went well,” Gold said once they were far away from the Hoenn lodge.

Crystal panted to catch her breath. “Sapphire is… really scary when angry. I thought she was going to kill me there… I don’t see how Ruby can constantly get her angry and not fear any repercussion.”

“So what now, Super Serious Gal? Do we abandon the plan?”

“No. We still have to get to the Sinnoh and Unova Dex Holders. We just… don’t tell the Hoenn Dex Holders of what really happened. Ever.”

The two Johto Dex Holders made their way towards the Sinnoh Dex Holders’ rented lodge. Crystal shuddered at the thought of how close Sapphire had gotten to completely breaking her face with that punch. She made a note to never upset the Hoenn Dex Holder. Though in normal circumstances, Sapphire wouldn’t really do anything to her since she was her senior. But just in case…

Within 10 minutes, the two Johto Dex Holders arrived at the Sinnoh lodge. There was no smoke coming from the fireplace, so Gold and Crystal decided to climb down there. Inside the lodge, the two Dex Holders quietly crept out of the fireplace and towards the Christmas tree. So far so good. No sound was made and none of the Sinnoh Dex Holders were in sight.

But it didn’t last long. Before Crystal could even reach for the present boxes in Gold’s bag, Platinum came downstairs, as she wanted a glass of water. Gold and Crystal both quickly took cover in the dark. The heiress let out a yawn as she headed towards the kitchen.

The two Johto Dex Holders remained in cover as they heard the refrigerator open. They were going to remain hidden until the heiress went back upstairs to sleep. But, once again, their plan didn’t quite work out.

As Platinum made her way towards the stairs, she took an unconscious glance at the fireplace and suddenly stopped walking. She kept her eyes on the fireplace for a few seconds before she walked closer.

“Why are those logs out of place?” she muttered quietly.

Crystal glanced at the fireplace and realized that when she climbed down the chimney, she knocked over the neatly piled up logs and they were now scattered everywhere. As the heiress made her way towards the fireplace, she looked to her left and saw Gold…

Platinum let out an ear splittingly loud terrified shriek as she tried to run. Crystal, who had been hiding behind the couch next to the heiress, hastily grabbed onto her legs, forcing the heiress to trip. Gold took this time to drop three present boxes near the Christmas tree before helping Crystal.

“N – No!” Platinum cried out as she kicked her senior in the chest to force her off. “Not again!”

Crystal had to let go of Platinum so that she wouldn’t be kicked in the face. The heiress desperately struggled up to her feet and tried to run again. Gold grabbed her from behind and put her in a sleeper hold.

The girl flailed her legs and tried to pry open the grip Gold had over her throat. But with circulation cut off from her head, she passed out within seconds. Just as Platinum collapsed on the floor, a Torterra and Infernape appeared out of their Pokéballs. In the stairway, Diamond and Pearl stood, ready to punish the two home invaders for harming Platinum.

Just as the Infernape charged over and the Torterra shot a barrage of sharp leaves, Gold and Crystal dived through the windows to make their escape. They sent out their aerial transport Pokémon and fled, being careful to evade the anti-air projectiles in the form of Diamond’s Torterra’s Razor Leaf.

Once they were far away from the Sinnoh lodge, the two Johto Dex Holders headed towards their last destination. The night was a disaster so far, but they couldn’t leave out the two Unova Dex Holders. And without anyone as sharp in hearing as Sapphire, this time, the plan would succeed.

Gold and Crystal entered the Unova lodge via the chimney. This time, Crystal restacked the logs and took cover in the dark to see if White heard anything. Black… would still be asleep, as he was quite dense when his Munna wasn’t munching on his brain- _dreams_.

Relieved to know that the plan would actually succeed this time, Crystal reached into the bag Gold was carrying and withdrew the two last remaining gift boxes. But just as she was about to place them under the Christmas tree, she noticed something.

“What the…”

“What?” Gold asked. “Something wrong?”

Crystal stared at the gift boxes. “… This one’s for Ruby… And the other one’s for Platinum…”

“Huh?”

“Gold!” Crystal yelled in anger. “What the hell! You put the _wrong_ gifts at the Hoenn and Sinnoh Christmas trees!”

“Hey, don’t yell at me!” Gold yelled back. “You were the one who screwed everything up! You’re the one who broke the windows to alert the Hoenn guys and you’re the one who knocked over those logs in the Sinnoh place!”

“But what we did would have some meaning if you put the right gifts at the right place!” Crystal argued.

Crystal stared at the two _wrong_ gift boxes in despair, wondering what she was going to do.

“Hey! Who the hell are you?!” came Black’s voice from behind.

Gold and Crystal turned around and saw the two Unova Dex Holders in the stairway. Black stood in a protective stance in front of White, in case the two unwanted visitors were going to cause any harm.

“Well, sh*t…” Gold muttered quietly.

“Miss President, go call the cops,” Black said to White.

White nodded and eyed the two invaders rather fearfully. “Okay… Be careful, Black…”

Crystal sighed when White started to run up the stairs to call the police. The Johto Dex Holder took out a small ball of sort and pitched it at White, hitting her on the back of the head. The ball exploded into a cloud of white gas that covered the Unova Dex Holder completely.

White suddenly groaned as she collapsed on the stairs. Black turned to look at her and froze in horror.

“Miss President!”

Taking this time, Gold dashed over and whacked the Unova Dex Holder on the back of the head with his indestructible _candy cane_. Once both Unova Dex Holders were unconscious on the floor, Gold looked over at Crystal.

“What did you throw at Bossy Gal?” he asked.

“It’s something I brought for the worst possible scenario. A capsule containing a mix of Stun Spore and Sleep Powder. Mostly Sleep Powder though,” Crystal answered. “I extracted it from Parapeon, just in case.”

“So… basically a gas grenade,” Gold commented.

“More or less.” Crystal stared at the two unconscious Unova Dex Holders. “Well, tonight’s thoughtful plan resulted in a complete disaster… Four juniors knocked unconscious…”

Gold and Crystal looked out through the window when they heard police sirens in the distance. Gold tossed the two _wrong_ gifts at the Christmas tree and grabbed Crystal by the wrist.

“Let’s bail, Crys. I’m sure the four conscious juniors called the cops.”

Crystal nodded. “Let’s get out of here before it’s too late.”

The two Johto Dex Holders left the Unova lodge by the back door and headed away from the direction of the police sirens. Once they were clear, they headed back to Johto.

“Crys, I think my juniors are going to hate me more now thanks to you,” Gold said.

Crystal groaned. “I know…” She looked at Gold and sighed. “Gold… we must _never_ tell our juniors of what happened tonight.”

“What if they find out on their own? Some of them are smarter than you, Crys.”

“… I’m smarter than…” Crystal trailed off, realizing that it was true. Platinum, for one, was definitely smarter. And Black too, but only if he activated his _Detective Mode_. She sighed as she had to suck up her pride and admit it. “Never mind. If they suspect us, we’ll have to go talk to Blue and get her to help us…”

* * *

Post Ending:

Blue groaned and put a hand over her face. She glared at Gold and Crystal and shook her head.

“This is the second time you two idiots are standing in front of me after you royally screwed everything up. I thought you would’ve learned after your so-called help with Platinum overcoming her fears. Thanks to you two, some of our juniors might _gain_ new phobias!”

“… Sorry,” Crystal mumbled out.

“Only you two could turn a nice event like giving meaningful presents into a flat-out intrusion.” Blue let out a long sigh before focusing on Crystal. “Now Crys, I know you’d like me to stop grouping you and Gold together. You’re clearly much smarter than him, although your intelligence is really put into question whenever you’re with him for some reason.”

Crystal looked embarrassed and even ashamed and kept her head down. “Sorry… I blame Gold for that…”

“I do too,” Blue said with a nod. “Tell you what. If you help me take care of a little dilemma, I won’t call you two idiots until your next idiotic plan fails spectacularly, and I’ll help you two in convincing our juniors that you did not mean any harm whatsoever.”

“All right. So what dilemma is that?” Gold asked.

“You know how Platinum’s Pokémon are infected with the Pokérus?”

“Yes. But the virus is harmless,” Crystal said.

Blue nodded. “I know. But that’s not my dilemma. The problem is that the virus has been transferred onto Red and Green’s Pokémon.”

“… And?” Gold said, clearly not understanding the issue.

“Do you even know what Pokérus does?” Blue asked her two Johto juniors.

Crystal nodded. “Yes. The Pokémon is not harmed at all, but it grows twice as strong… Oh…”

Blue nodded. “Yeah. And let’s face it. Red and Green are already ridiculously powerful. And it’s not bad having very powerful friends. But when they become _too_ powerful… And besides, though Green’s fine with his Pokémon infected, Red is… different. He’s too excited about his Pokémon becoming more and more powerful, and he’s going around, battling all of our juniors again and again. He forced White to battle him 10 times this week. Her Pokémon are hurt, and so are her feelings, but Red’s still too excited. He thinks he’s training her when in reality, he’s just beating her up.” Blue cleared her throat before she gave her Johto juniors their ‘mission’. “So your task, should you choose to take it to get out of your ‘idiot’ status, will be to battle Red continuously until the Pokérus dies. But beware, thanks to the effect of the virus, his Pokémon are more powerful than ever.”

Gold and Crystal glanced at each other. The boy simply shrugged while the girl sighed. They both turned to look at Blue.

“Deal,” Gold said without much thought. “I mean, all we have to do is take a beating for as long as the virus lives, right?”

Crystal sighed again. “I don’t have any choice, now do I? I want to be stopped being referred to as ‘the other idiot’ by Silver…”

Blue smiled. “Of course. Oh, and I suggest that you two hurry up. Red battles Black and Sapphire in a two-on-one immediately after he beats up White. Black and Sapphire are two of our juniors who will be even more excited about Pokérus than Red. If all three have their Pokémon infected with the virus…”

Gold and Crystal looked at each other for a second before they both started to run. Their primary objective: find Red and essentially become his Pokémon’s punching bags for an unknown period of time. Their secondary objective: prevent Black and Sapphire’s Pokémon from being infected by the Pokérus, and become their punching bags for the duration of the virus if failing to stop the spreading.


	11. Another Day at Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on February 1, 2013.  
> The ending may be a bit abrupt since it was supposed to tie in with a chapter from another story of mine that will not be uploaded here, thus the ending was altered very slightly.

Chapter 11: Another Day at Work

April 21, Earl’s Academy, Violet City, 2 pm…

It was a nice day. Nice, calm, warm, peaceful day where nothing could possibly go wrong. But of course, this was Earl’s Academy where everything generally did go wrong.

Crystal looked on from a distance as all the orphans ran around and enjoyed the nice weather. She kept her eyes on four particular orphans, the greatest hell raisers she had ever seen in the orphanage. They weren’t really mean to others (sometimes), but pulled off ingenious pranks that would make Gold and Emerald proud.

Every time someone came to visit the orphanage, these four orphans made it their duty to make the experience a living hell. Blue visited once a few months ago and ended up with a thumbtack in her foot and staples in her arms. The tack and staples weren’t big enough for major damage, but enough to cause minor bleeding. Blue had given Crystal hell for that experience…

The four hell raisers only obeyed one person, and that was Crystal. But they only listened as long as her instructions didn’t directly interfere with their schemes. And they had a _lot_ of schemes going on at once.

“Frederic! Frederic! Put that rock down!” Crystal ordered, spotting one of the four hell raisers tossing a fist sized rock in the air. “You might hurt someone!”

“Don’t worry! I won’t hurt anyone with it. I never miss, remember,” the 8 year old said.

The little hell raiser threw the rock at a nearby tall Berry plant and hit a thin branch. The branch shook violently and the large iron-hard Wepear Berry fell… directly onto a little castle another orphan was building using various blocks. Crystal shook her head and went on to help the upset boy rebuild his obliterated castle. Frederic grinned in satisfaction and walked away to seek his next victim. As Crystal helped in building a sturdier block castle, she glanced up to check on the other orphans. She spotted two of the remaining hell raisers running around the playground, ‘accidentally’ stepping on others’ feet and kicking away toys.

The Johto Dex Holder quickly stopped them. The two hell raisers, named William and Samuel, obeyed for once and went on to do something else. Crystal sighed in relief but was worried about what the fourth and worst hell raiser was doing.

“William, where’s Sarah?” she asked.

The little hell raiser looked around for a second and soon spotted his companion. “There she is!”

Crystal looked at where the little boy was pointing and saw the fourth hell raiser on a large tree branch, with a baby Weedle in hand.

“Oh no…” Crystal muttered. The Weedle appeared to be very young, which meant there were bound to be Beedrills around somewhere. Crystal shuddered at the thought of being chased by a swarm of pissed off 3-feet-tall bees with 3 massive stingers. “Sarah! Get down from there! And leave the Weedle! If you don’t, you’ll be chased by Beedrills!”

“That’s the idea!” the little girl yelled.

“Bad idea!” Crystal shouted as she ran towards the tree. If that little girl wasn’t coming down, she had no choice but to go up there and drag her down.

“No! I want to see you catch all of the Beedrills at once! It’s so cool!”

“Can’t I just catch a bunch of _harmless_ Pokémon at once? Like a group of Bellsprouts?”

“No! Bellsprouts suck! I want to see Beedrills!”

“Sarah, I don’t even have Pokéballs with me today. I gave all I had to Emerald and I couldn’t stock up on them. I only have a handful of prototypes that I’m not even sure works! So if you do lure a swarm of Beedrills, there’s a big risk of them going out of control!”

The hell raiser thought for a second before she set the Weedle back down. She then climbed down and Crystal watched carefully in case she fell. Once the little hell raiser was completely off the tree, Crystal led her back towards the other orphans. Unfortunately, she could hear a really loud buzzing noise coming from behind before she could retreat to safety.

“Oh, no…” the Dex Holder muttered. She looked backwards and counted 20 Beedrills, looking quite pissed off. “Everyone! Run!”

All the orphans saw the swarm of Beedrills and started to run. Except the four hell raisers, who stood by, watching. Crystal reached for her Pokéballs and then realized that she had left them _inside_ the orphanage building. Figures… She took out the box of the prototype Pokéballs from her apron and tossed it to one of the hell raiser orphans. At this proximity, she couldn’t really use them effectively and needed someone’s assistance. She then took off the apron and stared at the horde of Beedrills.

The leading Beedrill tried to stab her with one of its stingers. Crystal blocked it with her apron. The stinger had stabbed through the apron and Crystal twisted the apron, rendering the stinger immobile. One Beedrill from the side tried to attack and she held its stinger away from her with her right foot.

The hell raiser with the box of Pokéball prototypes (Frederic, as it turned out), tossed one of the prototypes at Crystal. The Dex Holder pushed back the stinger with her right foot and swung around with its momentum, heel-kicking the incoming prototype Pokéball into the Beedrill with her left heel, capturing it. 1 down, 19 more to go.

With both hands, Crystal swung the Beedrill still ‘attached’ to her apron, forcing it to collide into a group of 3 Beedrills. Frederic tossed 3 Pokéballs in succession. Crystal spun around on her left foot, using her right foot to kick the incoming 3 Pokéballs into 3 separate Beedrills, capturing them. 3 more down, 16 more to go.

Crystal kicked the nearest bug in the side of the head, forcing it to back off. She then immediately heel-kicked the next one using the momentum, forcing that one to back off. The third bug tried to stab her with both of its stingers but the girl tornado-kicked it using the built-up momentum from her two previous kicks before its stingers could get close to her body. She kicked an incoming Pokéball into a Beedrill using her right foot, heel-kicked an incoming bug with her left heel, then kicked another Pokéball into another bug with her right foot again. 2 more down, 14 more to go.

Frederic threw a prototype Pokéball at a Beedrill. The Pokéball bounced off its stinger and… Crystal kicked it right into the bug’s face.

For the next 3 minutes, Crystal didn’t even have enough time to think, as the bugs became more and more aggressive. She couldn’t remain idle for even half of a second, as she had to constantly dodge incoming Beedrill stingers while kicking off the bugs that were too close and kicking incoming Pokéball prototypes into Beedrills that weren’t in front of her face.

But eventually, there was only one left. This one managed to strike Crystal on the shoulder with its stinger, but didn’t stab her. The Dex Holder stumbled and fell to her knees. The Beedrill took its chance and thrust both stingers towards the girl’s chest. Crystal quickly backed off to avoid getting stabbed and wrapped her legs around both of the stingers, rendering them immobile. She then pulled herself up and grabbed onto the Beedrill’s head to avoid getting hit by the third stinger. The Beedrill began to flap its wings, striking the girl on the face again and again, forcing her to block with one arm. Crystal suddenly put a hand in the air. Frederic tossed a prototype Pokéball and it landed on her palm. Crystal thrust the ball into the Beedrill’s face and immediately she fell onto the ground as the Pokémon was captured.

The orphans began to applaud as they ran closer. Crystal remained sitting on the ground, panting to catch her breath. She smiled at the orphans to show them that she was perfectly okay.

“That was so cool!” Sarah said excitedly. “I want to see it again!”

Crystal’s smile faded. “No, no, no… don’t…”

“Aww… all right. Next time.”

30 minutes later, the orphans were back to playing and enjoying the nice weather. Crystal kept her eyes on the hell raisers, in case they did anything again. Having to fight 20 Beedrills in hand-to-stinger combat wasn’t something she wanted to try again. Though she did get to test out the prototype Pokéballs Professor Oak had given her earlier that day. She looked into the box she took back from Frederic and noticed that only half of the prototype Pokéballs remained. So she was halfway done in thoroughly testing them. Perhaps once the volunteering was done for the day, she’d go somewhere with Gold and finish testing.

Crystal snapped out of her thoughts when she heard something smash into the fence of the orphanage. The orphans heard it too and they all stopped what they were doing. Crystal slowly approached the source of the disturbance, wondering what it could be. The orphans followed as well.

“Ah, don’t come,” Crystal said. “It could be something dangerous.”

All the orphans backed off and waited from afar. Once she felt they were at a safe distance, Crystal carefully walked towards the source of the disturbance. Past a small group of trees, there was a large hole in the wooden fence. The hole seemed to have been made by a blunt force of sort and it was large enough for an adult to crawl through…

Without warning, a hand shot out from behind one of the trees and grabbed onto Crystal’s hair. The girl tried to swat the hand away, but whoever grabbed onto her suddenly yanked her close, slamming her face first into the tree. In the few seconds she was dazed, the assailant had come out of hiding behind her and wrapped an arm around her throat. She tried to push the hand away, but froze when she felt something sharp and cold pressed against her neck.

“Don’t try anything,” the assailant warned. “Or I kill you.”

He forced her to move away from the fence and approached the group of gathered orphans. The little kids all started to panic upon see Crystal’s predicament. Some screamed while some just cried.

“Shut up!” the assailant yelled. “Or the bitch gets it!”

“Please,” Crystal choked out. “Don’t use bad language in front of the children!”

“Whatever. They’ll hear it someday.”

“What do you want?”

“Those damned cops are going to be here soon, and you are going to help me make a deal with them.” Much to Crystal’s horror, the criminal’s free hand reached down from her throat and onto her chest… “Hmm… And maybe afterwards, you can help me with something else.”

‘ _No, no, no! Not in front of the children! Their minds will get tainted forever!_ ’ Crystal thought in panic. ‘ _… And mine too, I suppose…_ ’

She tried to think of a way out of her situation. The criminal had a knife pressed against her throat with one hand, and his other was… holding onto her pretty tight. She then looked at the group of orphans, worried about how they would take the hostage situation (and the prelude to rape). They looked so frightened, every single one of… wait…

‘ _Where’s Frederic, William, and Samuel?_ ’ Crystal wondered as she stared at Sarah. The little hell raiser looked at her with a nonchalant expression. The hell raiser never panicked and never got scared. She caught her eye and blinked three times in rapid succession. ‘ _Wait a second… I’ve seen her do that before… A makeshift timer!_ ’

Crystal saw Sarah blink like that one too many times before. She always used it as a silent signal to her friends, who would be hiding somewhere out of sight, ready to pull off a perfectly timed prank. And this time, Crystal had to assume the 3 hell raiser boys were hidden somewhere, ready to give her perfectly timed help.

Sarah blinked a second after her ‘signal’. Crystal calmed herself despite being _violated_ so she may make the best decision when the time came. The hell raiser blinked once more a second later. Crystal held her breath and held the knife arm of the criminal in place so that he may not kill her easily. The hell raiser blinked a third time…

In that instant, a construction grade nail was shot from the trees and stabbed into the knife hand of the criminal. Since Crystal had been holding that arm in place, he could not slit her throat with the knife. The Dex Holder kicked upwards with her right foot, using her flexibility to kick the assailant in the face despite the fact that he was behind her.

Crystal quickly pushed the knife hand away while he was stunned from that surprising kick. She then tried to escape from him, but he could still reach her. He swung his knife at her (which had been now nailed into his hand) in a desperate attempt to kill her. Crystal managed to dodge the lethal attack, but the tip of the blade had cut across her left cheek, leaving a long, relatively deep gash.

Regardless of the minor injury, the Johto Dex Holder kicked the criminal in the head three times in rapid succession with both of her feet. She started with a roundhouse kick with her right foot, used its slight momentum for a spinning heel kick with her left, and used the built up momentum for a midair roundhouse kick, also known as the tornado kick. It seemed that the temporary self-defense lesson Green forced her into a couple of years ago did help… Maybe the Gym Leader would still offer her that opportunity if he had time…

But she’d worry about that later. The criminal was still on his feet, despite reeling quite a bit. He kicked her in the chest, knocking her down to the ground. He then tried to reach for her, but two construction grade nails stabbed into his knees, having been shot from the trees once more.

Sarah saw the opportunity and threw a wooden board (where her friends removed those nails) at the reeling man. He saw the board coming and caught it before it hit him in the face. In that instant, Crystal jumped to her feet, sidestepped towards him and delivered a side kick at his face. Her heel hit the wooden board first, effectively smashing it into the criminal’s face a split second before the kick actually connected with his jaw.

The man teetered from that kick but soon toppled over unconscious. All of the orphans (minus the four hell raisers) cheered and ran towards Crystal, who had dropped to her knees to catch her breath.

“Big sis!”

The Dex Holder saw them and smiled at them to show that she was okay. Again. The orphans all suddenly embraced her and started to cry, forcing her to comfort each one individually. From the corner of her eye, Crystal saw the 3 hell raiser boys climb down from the trees, each with a slingshot in hand. She recalled telling them to put those things away many times already, as they may hurt someone. But _thankfully_ , they didn’t listen to her. Again.

Soon, Sarah walked over to her with a first aid kit in hand. All the other orphans tried to help with the treatment of her wound, which really wasn’t necessary. But they apparently wanted to repay the favor for each time she helped them with their cuts and scrapes.

Eventually, the Violet City police came to investigate the intrusion. Falkner was leading the investigation, so Crystal told him all that happened despite the 20 orphans still clinging onto her while crying.

Afterwards, Crystal patted each one on the head and tried her best to comfort them. She was sure that some of them may have been traumatized and hoped that she would be able to help them overcome it. But this was her job. Well, _volunteer_ work, anyways. It was her duty to help these orphans in any way she could, including physically protecting them and calming them emotionally. For her, it was just another day at work. She had no idea how to overcome a trauma, though. She didn’t know if anyone else could help her either.

But all of her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she heard a very familiar voice. Crystal felt all of her worries and troubles being washed away in an instant and she quickly spun around to face the source of that familiar voice.

“Hey, Crys!”

“Hi, Gold!”

“You okay, Crys? You have a band-aid on your cheek there.”

Crystal simply smiled. “Yeah. I’m fine. It’s just another day at work.”


	12. Shock and Awe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on April 20, 2013. And it throws reality out the window for pure comedic relief. Yay!

**Category: SR.**

Chapter 23: Shock and Awe

The incident all began near the end of one of the Dex Holder meetings. Platinum was trying to pull a door open while at the same time, Gold was trying to push it from the other side. Gold got to the door first, and as a result, accidentally hit the heiress with it. More specifically, the edge of the door was slammed into the girl’s foot.

“Ow!” the girl cried out in pain. “… F*ck!”

The moment she cried out, all the Dex Holders around her stopped what they were doing and all turned to stare at her.

“What… the… hell?!” Red muttered in shock.

Blue stared at Platinum in utter disbelief. “… What did you just say?”

Platinum glanced at all the Dex Holders while hobbling on one foot, wondering why everyone was looking at her like that.

“Platinum,” Crystal started. “Did you just… swear? Did _you_ just _swear_?”

Blue turned to glare at Red and his ‘team’. Under normal circumstances, the 15 Dex Holders split off into 3 groups of 5, each led by a Kanto Dex Holder, in an effort to promote intergenerational friendship and bonds. Platinum was in Red’s group/team, along with Gold, Sapphire, and Black.

“Red, Gold, Sapphire, and Black, stand in that side of the room,” Blue ordered as she pointed at the opposite wall. When they all did as told, she crossed her arms and walked up to Black. “Black, explain yourself. Did you ever swear in front of Platinum?”

“N – No, ma’am!” Black quickly answered.

“Um… I can vouch for Black,” White said from behind. “He doesn’t swear much.”

Blue looked over at Red. “I know you don’t swear that much either. Which leaves Gold and Sapphire. Both of you have a history of lewd behaviors or crude language, and are generally quite rude. You two are a bad, _bad_ influence to Platinum.”

“Blue, I promise I’ll take care of Gold,” Crystal said from behind. “I’ll make sure he’ll behave properly in front of Platinum from this point on.”

“How are you going to punish him?” Blue asked.

Crystal didn’t reply and instead, walked up to Gold, who avoided her eye contact. Without warning, she kicked him in the right knee, really hard.

“Ow, son of a-” Gold cried out. But before he could swear, Crystal kicked him in the other knee.

“Swear again, and guess where the third kick is going,” Crystal said in a menacing tone.

Gold quickly fell silent. He did not want to get kicked down there by someone like Crystal…

“Now that leaves you, Sapphire,” Blue said. “Ruby, are you going to do anything with her?”

“No,” Ruby answered. “Are you kidding? She’ll beat me up!”

Blue crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. Sapphire avoided eye contact and took a nervous gulp.

“I’ll think of something for you,” Blue said eventually. “Until then, Platinum, you’re going to have to face the consequences of you becoming like some of your teammates.”

“Y – Yes, senior. If… if I may ask, what do you have in mind?” the heiress asked nervously.

Blue pointed at the corner of the room. “On your knees over there with your hands in the air. I’ll give you something heavy to hold up. Maintain that position for 3 hours.”

“Isn’t that a little harsh?” Diamond asked.

“Platinum’s father once came to me and requested for me to take good care of her,” Blue said. “That involves making sure she does not become _anything_ like Gold or Sapphire. Luckily, her formality hasn’t changed at all. But if she starts swearing and is allowed to do so, she’ll become like them. And I can’t let that happen.”

“You know, we’re still here,” Gold said from the floor. “Couldn’t you at least wait for us to get out of here before you badmouth us?”

“Quiet you,” Crystal growled.

“Yes, ma’am…”

Next day, Blue had obtained her solution. With everyone gathered once again, she approached Sapphire with a large… _collar_. She put it on Sapphire’s neck and adjusted it a little so while it wouldn’t be too tight to hinder her breathing, it wouldn’t be too loose either. Blue then pressed a button on a remote device and the collar emitted a single beep.

“So… what’s this?” Sapphire asked.

“It’s called a shock collar,” Blue answered. “Also known as the aggression inhibitor. It’ll zap you whenever you swear or do something violent. It’ll actually zap you if you even _think_ something violent. Test it out.”

“Um… no thanks.”

“I’ll test it then,” Gold said from behind. With his billiard cue, he whacked Sapphire on the shoulder.

“Ow! What the hell?!” Sapphire yelled as she glared at Gold.

Ruby looked over at Blue. “I don’t think it did anything.”

Blue looked at the remote device. “Hold on. Let me adjust that.”

“What?” Sapphire said as she looked over at Blue. “I can’t even say (zap!) Ow! (zap!) Son of a (zap!)”

All the other Dex Holders stepped away from Sapphire as she dropped to her knees, constantly getting zapped by her shock collar. Every time she got shocked, she cursed, which resulted in another shock. Eventually, she fell onto the floor, rolling around, writhing in agony as she swore painful revenge. As a result, she was shocked some more.

“Looks like it works pretty well,” Ruby commented. “We can’t hear her swearing because she can’t finish her curse without getting zapped.”

“Blue!” Sapphire yelled. “Stop this (zap!) thing! This is so (zap!) unfair! And it hurts like (zap!) Ah!”

“And the best thing about this is that it will never stop working!” Blue said with a grin. “It powers itself with its own electric shocks, and those who try to tamper with it will also get shocked! Not to mention, it’s completely waterproof and fireproof! So Ruby, take Sapphire back to Hoenn, and let me know how things went in a few days.”

“Ruby,” Sapphire said from the floor. She wasn’t being shocked as she had managed to calm down. “Help me up.”

Ruby reached down and grabbed her hand. The moment he pulled, Sapphire held onto his hand tight and clenched her teeth. A quick angry thought triggered the shock collar to zap her, which… also zapped Ruby.

“What the hell, Sapphire?!” Ruby yelled in pain through the shocking.

“Take that, you (zap!)”

Blue grinned as she watched the two Hoenn Dex Holders continuously getting zapped. “Oh, this is going to be fun!”

…

Three days later, Route 101, Hoenn…

…

Ruby entered the forest and took a brief look around the thick foliage. Sapphire was probably around somewhere. She could probably smell his perfume too, using her heightened senses. Now, the last time he tried to look for her in the forest, she ended up throwing a Bluk Berry at his clean hat and pushed him into a puddle of mud. Time for some payback…

“Hey, barbarian!” he yelled. “Get down here and take a look at civilization!”

As expected, he heard a zap coming from above and a short groan. With a satisfied grin, he tried again. And again. And again.

But perhaps that was one too many. After another zap, he heard another groan, but this time, followed by the sound of leaves rustling and branches snapping. He looked up and spotted Sapphire falling down to the ground, as the electric shocks prevented her from properly holding onto the branches. Before Ruby could even get to her, Sapphire was smashed through another thick branch and hit the ground hard.

“Oh no, I killed her!” Ruby quickly ran to her side and knelt on the ground beside her. He gently pulled Sapphire into his arms and shook her. “Hey, Sapphire, wake up!”

To his relief, the girl groaned and struggled to open her eyes. But within a few seconds she opened her eyes and instantly glared at him. “You bastard!” she roared in anger, causing her shock collar to zap her. But it didn’t seem to affect her at all. Only Ruby was zapped. “You tried to kill me!”

“I didn’t mean for you to fall off!” Ruby explained through the shocks. “But I’m glad you’re okay!”

Sapphire reached up and pressed both of her hands onto his temples. “You bastard!”

“Stop shocking me!” Ruby yelled as he dropped to the ground while still carrying Sapphire. “Why aren’t _you_ getting zapped?!”

The girl stopped with her angry thoughts and in that instant, the shock collar stopped with the electric shocks. She got up to her feet and felt around the device, and soon found a clue as to what happened. There was a fracture on the device, probably caused by either the many branches during her fall, or a rock during her impact with the ground. Either way, it seemed that the shock collar didn’t harm her anymore. But the electric current still remained over the course of her body… Interesting…

While Ruby struggled up to his feet, Sapphire moved her hands so that her palms faced each other without making contact. As a test, she thought about punching Ruby in the face. And in that instant, blue electric shocks shot out from her fingers and collided with each other, forming a small blue electric ball between her palms for a few seconds before dissipating.

Ruby saw the electric ball. He then saw Sapphire starting to grin. He immediately jumped to his feet and ran. Sapphire chased after him with all her might.

“Get back here you asshole!” Sapphire yelled with blue electric current traveling around the course of her body. “I’m going to have some f*cking payback for the past few days!” She extended her arms towards Ruby. He was barely within grasp as he wasn’t able to use his Running Shoes due to the partially muddy ground. With her palms facing his back, Sapphire thought of horrible revenge. And much to her joy, blue electric jolts shot out of her fingers and hit Ruby.

With a surprised and pained yelp, the boy fell to the ground, allowing Sapphire to crouch over him, effectively pinning him to the ground. Seeing her evil grin, Ruby started to plead.

“Sapphire, it wasn’t my idea to put the shock collar on you.”

“Doesn’t matter! You were taking advantage of it!” Sapphire yelled. With some angry thoughts, she shocked Ruby mercilessly. “And now you’ll know how it feels!” With a loud laugh, she unleashed her newly found electric powers on the poor boy. Of course she wasn’t going to harm him _too_ much. But she was still going to have her moment of payback.

…

Next day, Pallet Town, Kanto…

…

Blue hummed to herself as she made herself a nice lunch using Red’s kitchen and supplies in his house. She was about to finish making the meal when her Pokégear started to ring. She powered the stove down and answered.

“Hello?”

“Uh… Blue?” came Ruby’s voice.

“Hi, Ruby. So, how’s Sapphire doing now?”

“She’s worse than before!”

“Huh? How?”

“She fell off a tree yesterday and after the crash, the shock collar kind of… broke,” Ruby answered. “It’s malfunctioning and… she can now use Thundershock and Thunderpunch! Help me!”

Blue started to laugh. “Wow, really? Talk about a plan backfiring… wow!”

“This isn’t the time to be awed!” Ruby yelled. “She wants revenge! She’s trying to… … oh no, she learned _Zap Cannon_!”

“Well, there’s really nothing I can do,” Blue said dismissively. “The remote’s signal isn’t nearly as strong enough to reach Hoenn.”

“Can’t you come here and help?” Ruby asked. “There’s no way I’ll be able to take Sapphire back! She’ll fry me alive on the way!”

“I _could_ go to Hoenn,” Blue began casually. “But I promised White that I’ll see her at her home so I could teach her a few things.”

“… Can’t you get someone to just bring that remote over here?”

“I like to keep my toys. You never know when things could backfire. Why don’t you just wear insulating clothes?”

“Are you kidding?!” Ruby yelled even louder. “That’ll completely ruin my fashion!”

Blue rolled her eyes. “Whatever. In that case, why don’t you make a deal with her? I know Crys offered to take Gold on a date only if he doesn’t swear or do anything rude for a whole week. Maybe you can…” Blue trailed off and looked at her food still on the frying pan. “Oh, I need to hang up now. My food’s ready.”

“What?! Blue, this is serio-”

Blue hung up and moved her food onto a plate. She resumed humming as she moved the plate to the dinner table and prepared to eat. She thought about what Ruby said and tried picturing an enraged Sapphire chasing after a terrified Ruby while shooting electricity from her hands. The image was too hilarious and she burst into laughter.

“Ah, now _that’s_ a lover’s quarrel.”

…

Back in Hoenn, Ruby carefully approached Sapphire, who seemed to be practicing with her newly found technology boosted ability.

“Hey Ruby, check this out,” she said with a grin. She moved her hands as if she was holding a large rock between them. ‘ _Angry thoughts, violent thoughts, angry thoughts, angry thoughts, and…_ ’

Ruby watched nervously as a fist-sized blue electric ball formed in between Sapphire’s palms. The girl kept her teeth clenched as she focused to keep the ball intact. With a loud curse, she thrust her hands forward, shooting the makeshift Zap Cannon forward, towards a tree. The electric ball hit the tree and sent electric shocks coursing throughout all of its branches, causing some unlucky Pokémon to get zapped as well. The ball itself burnt a small section around the impact zone. Sapphire rubbed the back of her neck as she watched various Wurmple and other small Pokémon fall off the tree and hit the ground from the sudden electric shock.

“… Oops,” she muttered. “I guess I won’t use that against a tree anymore.”

‘ _Or me, hopefully…_ ’ “Listen, Sapphire,” Ruby said as he summoned his courage. “I’ll offer you a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” she asked as she turned to look at him.

“If you don’t zap me for a whole week, I’ll… take you out for dinner.”

Sapphire crossed her arms as she began to think. “… How about you take me out for a dinner date, _then_ I won’t shock you for a week. What do you say?”

“What guarantee do I have that you _won’t_ shock me afterwards?”

Sapphire put her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “What, you don’t trust me?”

“You spent all of yesterday and this morning shocking the hell out of me!” Ruby yelled. “You’ll probably shock me the moment the dinner date ends!”

With clenched teeth, Sapphire raised a fist and held it in front of Ruby so he could see the electric jolts coursing around it. “You better trust me!”

“Threatening me with Thunderpunch doesn’t convince me to believe you!”

Much to his joy and surprise, Sapphire lowered her fist and the electric jolts dissipated. “Tell you what. How about a compromise? I won’t shock you for 3 days. At the end of that mark, you take me on a dinner date, and I won’t shock you for another 3 days. How’s that?”

“… Very well then. We have a deal.” He extended his hand and Sapphire reached to shake it, in order to officially make the deal. But right before the two hands met, there was a slight jolt of electricity. “Ow! Damn it, Sapphire! What the hell?!”

“That was a static shock!” the girl yelled in defense.

“No it wasn’t!”

“Yes it was!”

…

Back in Pallet Town, as Blue finished her lunch, a thought suddenly occurred.

“Maybe I should’ve told them that there’s a secret “off” button on that shock collar,” she muttered. She kept thinking about Sapphire chasing and shocking Ruby and grinned. “Nah, this is much more interesting.”


	13. Cook Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on June 22, 2013

****

Chapter 13: Cook Off

“All right Blue, what the hell do you have in plan for us this time?” Green asked as he glanced at the gathered Dex Holders.

“Not sure I like that tone and attitude,” Blue commented. “But this is important. A recent consensus is that the Dex Holders are all well acquainted with battle tactics, but not with general life skills. And it’s quite true. Apart from Dia, who knows how to cook? And apart from Ruby, who knows how to sew things together?”

“And not to mention the complete lack of etiquette in _some_ of the Dex Holders,” Crystal said as she cast an accusing glance at Gold, Sapphire, and Emerald.

“Right. So I gathered you all here so we can learn and improve our skills,” Blue said. “So, girls, we’ll be learning how to cook and sew things from Dia and Ruby.”

“And you three,” Crystal said, pointing at the three troublemakers. “You are going to take lessons from Platinum about manners!”

“All right then. Let’s get started! We’ll check the results of this endeavor in a week! Let’s get going!”

…

Diamond stood in front of the 6 female Dex Holders, wondering what he should teach first. Starting with learning how to use the knife properly would result in a disaster. So he’d start with the ingredients. Learning how to use what ingredient at what instances was crucial.

“Okay, you all have a table in front of you filled with food ingredients just purchased by the Lady,” he started. “Now, one of the most basic… Uh… Sapphire?”

The Hoenn Dex Holder looked up at her junior. “Hm?”

Diamond examined the girl’s table. “… The idea was for you to use that berry as an ingredient, not… eat it right now.”

“Oh. Oops. Sorry.”

Diamond rubbed the back of his neck. He decided to change his approach. “All right then. Everyone, turn on your ovens and try to make something good using most of the ingredients you are given. I’ll be tasting the samples myself. That way, I’ll know what I can do to help you.”

The female Dex Holders got to work and Diamond went around, giving tips and pointers. He started with Platinum, obviously. But his distraction with the heiress proved to be… disastrous.

Sapphire looked up from her bowl as she mixed ground berries and fruits. “… What’s that burning smell?” She looked left and right and spotted the issue. “White, your hair’s on fire!”

“Wh – What?!” White shrieked as she quickly spun around, trying to catch a glimpse of the tip of her hair. She could now feel the heat around her back as the fire grew a little bigger. “Ah! Put it out!”

“Don’t worry! I’ll beat the fire out!” Sapphire shouted. With one hand, she grabbed onto White’s shoulder and with the other, began to pound the flame on the tip of the girl’s hair.

“Ow! Ow! Just use water!” White yelped out.

Crystal decided to intervene and help out by pouring a large cup of water onto White’s hair and back. Diamond simply watched the fiasco from afar, as he had no idea what to say in such a situation. Needless to say, this never happened before.

“Diamond,” Platinum started. “Perhaps it would be best if you focused your attention on the less experienced.”

“Right… Good idea.”

The food produced by the Dex Holders varied. Blue’s was quite good. She only needed to fine-tune her cooking skills. Yellow’s was undercooked. Crystal didn’t get to finish making her sample. Sapphire’s was completely burnt to a crisp. Platinum’s was great. Evidently, Diamond’s constant lessons really helped out. And White’s was half burnt and half undercooked.

Diamond decided to give a step-by-step lesson of making a fruit cake. He would show the female Dex Holders the complete process of making his cake, and allow them to mimic his steps. Hopefully, this will show the experienced Dex Holders what they are missing, and the completely inexperienced ones the basics of cooking.

He began with washing the fruits with cold water. Nothing could _possibly_ go wrong here. And nothing did. Next, he showed the female Dex Holders how to properly mix the batter. This somehow managed to cause trouble.

Sapphire’s super aggressive mixing splattered some of the half-liquid all around the area, making the floor quite slippery. At the same time, Yellow proceeded to walk over to the side of the room so that she may pick a different batter. As she walked, she slipped on the slippery floor just as Sapphire lifted her bowl in order to see if anything got on the bottom of the bowl. Yellow fell into Sapphire, effectively pushing her into the table and _throwing_ her bowl in the same direction. The bowl and the batter fell directly onto Platinum’s head, covering the heiress in head to toe with the half-mixed batter.

Diamond groaned and put a hand over his face. This was going to be a LONG cooking session.

An hour later, the created mess had been cleaned up and the cooking practice continued. As it turned out, someone messed up something somewhere in every possible cooking lesson. Yellow and Platinum accidentally cut themselves while slicing fruits, Sapphire set her cake on fire by baking it for too long, White baked her cake with the batter still in the bowl, Crystal baked her cake along with pieces of fruit instead of putting them on the cake _after_ baking, Blue burned her fingers while removing the baked cake, etc.

Diamond stared wordlessly at the miserable failures and wondered how the hell the female Dex Holders were going to fare in the cooking competition in the end.

…

Ruby’s sewing lessons had the similar result. Some of the girls were proficient at sewing. Others… no.

Blue and Crystal were okay. Yellow couldn’t seem to get the string through the needle even _with_ the tools provided, Sapphire and Platinum kept accidentally poking themselves with the needles, to the point where the heiress had to put band-aids on six of her fingers. White took way too much precaution and thus didn’t accomplish much.

Ruby didn’t pay particular attention to the failures. He was quite busy bickering with Sapphire, anyways. Besides, he knew that there was nothing to be accomplished from teaching properly. No one was really going to learn anything. Especially not Sapphire. Those who already knew how to sew a little wouldn’t really benefit much from the lessons anyways.

…

Platinum nervously stood in front of Gold, Sapphire, and Emerald, wondering how she would teach them to behave properly. Since she was younger than all three, the lessons would be awkward. But at least Diamond and Pearl were standing with her as assistants.

“Um… I believe the best way to… improve manners is to make it purely instinctive,” she started. “Simply knowing the best method of response is insufficient when instinct takes over. So… to begin…” Platinum cleared her throat as she thought of a scenario. “Okay. Suppose there is someone who is sitting in front of you and you have to ask that person to make room so that you may pass. And you are in a hurry. What would you say and how?”

Diamond and Pearl took the hint and sat down in front of Gold, Sapphire, and Emerald, while facing away from them. Gold was up first.

“Hey, get out of the way!” the goggled boy yelled.

Platinum shook her head and wrote down her evaluation on a notepad. She wasn’t able to criticize or punish any of her seniors, so she would just write down the results and let Crystal take care of it.

“Move your ass and get out of my way!” Sapphire yelled out. “I’m in a hurry!”

Emerald simply pushed the two Sinnoh Dex Holders out of his way instead of asking/ordering.

Platinum shook her head again. “Basic manners and habits should not be dependent on who you are talking to,” she said as she approached the three rude Dex Holders. “For example, if seniors Red and Green were sitting here instead, would you say the same things as you did with Diamond and Pearl?”

“Of course not!” Gold yelled. “They’ll kill me!”

“Perhaps a demonstration is needed?” Emerald suggested.

Platinum didn’t have any objections, so she agreed. She approached her two seated friends from behind.

“Excuse me,” she started politely. “May I request a passage through?”

The heiress turned around and noticed that none of her seniors were really paying any attention. So she got Gold to follow her example and try again.

“Excuse me,” Gold said rather politely. Surprisingly. “May I request you move your ass and let me through?”

Platinum let out a sigh as she wrote down the results once again. Teaching or simply passing her manners and etiquettes was going to be far more difficult than she had ever imagined…

…

Eventually, after many, _many_ complications, the week had passed. The 15 Dex Holders all gathered in the massive kitchen of the Berlitz Mansion, where the cooking competition will take place.

All 6 female Dex Holders worked in the kitchen while the male Dex Holders waited in the dining area.

“Damn it I’m hungry,” Gold muttered. “Where’s the food? I didn’t starve myself on the trip here only to starve here too!”

“And what’s this bucket for?” Emerald asked as he picked up a large metal bucket under his seat. Every seat had a bucket, apparently.

“Well… some of the foods made are bound to be horrible,” Diamond said. “Depending on your preference, obviously. The buckets are there so you’re not forced to swallow whatever’s in your mouth.”

The male Dex Holders glanced at each other. So the food was going to be that bad?

Red cleared his throat. “Uh… Look. The girls are going to put a lot of effort into their cooking. And we don’t want to hurt their feelings, right? So… no matter how terrible the food is, we have to say that it’s good. Especially if we don’t know whose food we’ll be trying.”

Just then, the servants of the Berlitz Mansion entered the dining room from the kitchen, carrying multiple dishes of food. The female Dex Holders followed and sat down on the dinner table. The male Dex Holders nervously looked at the plates of food being set down in front of them. Some of them glanced back and forth between the girls and the plates, trying to determine which plates were made by whom.

Red started to eat first. Taking the first bullet, so to speak. The plate in front of him was made by Sapphire. But he didn’t know. The moment the food touched his tongue, his reaction was immediate.

“Oh, damn!” he groaned as he spat out the contents in his mouth into his bucket. He quickly scanned the expressions of the female Dex Holders. “I – I mean… … uh…” He glanced back at the food on his plate. “… Damn it!”

It was Green’s turn now, so he let out a sigh and put a spoonful in his mouth. He did not chew yet. Instead, he checked the reactions of the girls. 5 of them were feigning interest. 1 had genuine interest. But which one? Ah, it didn’t matter.

Green chewed and swallowed, showing absolutely no reaction.

“So… how is it?” Crystal asked.

Green looked over at her. So did she make this? “It’s acceptable.”

“Is that good or bad?” Sapphire asked. “Be more like Red! … Even if he hated my cooking!”

“That was yours?” Red asked. “… Sorry.”

It was now Gold’s turn. And he grinned. “Okay, I think I got this one. If senior Red got Wildchild Girl’s and senior Green got Super Serious Gal’s, then it’s clear that we get food from whoever’s in our group or team! So that means the plate in front of me was made by either Wildchild Girl or Platinum. Right? Which means, regardless of my reactions, you can’t do anything to me! I’m your senior! Ha!”

Gold put a small portion of the food into his mouth and chewed. He chewed several times, trying to find the right words to point out the flaws. Having found the words, he pulled up his bucket and spat out the contents in his mouth into it.

“Terrible!” he spat out. “Absolutely terrible! You know, when someone is as starving as I am, _anything_ is bound to taste good. But this is just freaking terrible!”

After giving his horrible review of the food, Gold scanned the expressions of Sapphire and Platinum. Surprisingly, neither seemed to be remotely bothered by his comments. Gold scanned the expressions of Crystal and White. Again, neither cared. Then this meant…

“Gold,” Blue said calmly. “I’ll talk to you after this is over to discuss your review of the food that I put so much effort into creating.”

“… Uh oh… I’m screwed…”

Silver picked up his bucket and smashed it into Gold’s head. “You’ll pay for insulting sis’s effort!”

In Silver’s turn, he ended up tasting Crystal’s food. Following Green’s example, he kept his mouth shut. He refused to say anything, in the remote chance that he’d insult Blue’s or Crystal’s effort. Anyone else’s, he didn’t mind criticizing. But doing such with Blue’s or Crystal’s work resulted in horrible, painful doom; the same doom that would befall on Gold in an hour or so.

Ruby and Emerald ended up with White’s work. Ruby kept all negative thoughts to himself as he forced the foul stuff in his mouth down his throat. Emerald spat it out and dumped the contents of his plate into his bucket. There was no way in hell he was going to continue eating.

Since Diamond was the one who taught the female Dex Holders how to cook, he was exempt from tasting the results. He could tell which plate was the effort of which Dex Holder, which would make this ‘blind’ tasting rather pointless.

Pearl got Yellow’s work. Luckily for him, it was pretty good. Seeing his positive reaction, the unlucky male Dex Holders charged over and stole the ‘good’ food from the Sinnoh Dex Holder. Only Black, Green, and Silver remained in their seats. Black had yet to taste his food, and Green and Silver were maintaining their composure.

Once the food raid ended, Black cleared his throat and prepared to taste the food on his plate. It was prepared by Platinum, not that he knew. He carefully put a small portion of food in his mouth. The starving unlucky Dex Holders (including Pearl, whose food was stolen) all stared at him, gauging his reaction. Black eyed them nervously and… swallowed. He quickly grabbed his plate and made a run for it. The unlucky Dex Holders chased him, trying to steal his food.

Yellow and Platinum gave each other a smile. Only the food they prepared had positive reactions. Crystal… didn’t know. Silver and Green remained perfectly quiet, slowly munching on the food she prepared for them. She couldn’t tell if the food was good and the two Dex Holders were only restraining themselves, or the food was crap and they were just forcing it down. Maybe she’ll interrogate Silver later on and find out which.

Platinum watched as the male Dex Holders returned to their seats. Black staggered behind them, having been caught and gotten his food robbed.

“If I knew everyone would like my food so much, I would have prepared some more,” she said rather happily.

Yellow nodded in agreement. Some of the other girls glared at those who spat out their efforts. The others simply looked down in shame.

“Give me that plate,” Blue said to Gold, pointing at the food she prepared. “I know the food isn’t perfect, but I know it’s not bad!” Upon receiving the plate, she quickly tried a portion. And she started to cough.

“See what I mean?” Gold asked with a laugh. He stopped laughing when Blue and Silver both glared at him.

“… Yeah… I see,” Blue coughed out.

“Surely the food cannot be that bad,” Platinum said as she took a plate of food that no one was bothering to touch (Sapphire’s creation). She ate a small portion and regretted her decision.

“Terrible, right?” Red asked.

The heiress didn’t say anything, but nodded in agreement. Sapphire jumped to her feet and glared at her.

“Hey! That was _my_ creation! Show some respect!”

Yellow raised a hand into the air to try to stop the oncoming argument. “Okay, listen! We have to agree that some of us are not good at cooking. But still, we can’t throw out all the bad food. That would be hurtful and wasteful. So one of us is going to have to eat all of this.”

All 15 Dex Holders stood in their respective generations so that they could all have a game of rock-papers-scissors. The loser of each group would then gather and play again, determining the one final loser who would have to eat all the terrible food. It was only 7 plates of terrible food. It wasn’t _that_ much of an endeavor. Especially considering how little food was on each plate.

Red lost the game for the Kanto group. Crystal for Johto, Ruby for Hoenn, Pearl for Sinnoh, and Black for Unova. The final game of rock-papers-scissors forced Black to eat all the terrible food.

“Oh, come on!” the Unova Dex Holder yelled. “I get all the good food stolen and I’m forced to deal with the leftover crap?!”

“Black, my food is in there,” White said sadly from behind.

Black put a hand over his face. “… Crap.” He quickly turned to look at her. “I – I mean… uh… … crap…”

While the Unova Dex Holder dealt with all the terrible food (along with a pitcher of water), the other Dex Holders gathered for the manner test of Gold, Sapphire, and Emerald.

“So how are we going to test this?” Red asked.

“Simple,” Blue said. “Sorry, Platinum.”

“I beg your pardon?” the heiress said as she turned to look at her senior. Just then, Blue kicked her in the knee. “Ah! Senior, that hurt! Please give me a warning next time…”

Ruby nodded. “I see what you’re trying to do.” Without warning, he kicked Sapphire in the knee.

“Ow! You bastard!” the girl yelled in anger. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shook furiously. “What’s wrong with you?!”

At the same time, Silver kicked Gold in the knee. The goggled boy jumped in pain, but the moment he recovered, he jumped at Silver, engaging him in a fight within a large ball of dust.

Diamond and Pearl kicked Emerald in his Platform Shoes, making the Hoenn Dex Holder wobble for balance. Instead of saying anything, Emerald repeatedly smacked both Sinnoh Dex Holders across the face with his fake hands in retaliation.

Crystal shook her head and looked over at Platinum, who was busy rubbing the knee which Blue kicked.

“So… you didn’t really accomplish anything, huh?”

Platinum looked a little ashamed as she nodded. “…I have tried my best, but…” She took out her notepad from her bag. “This is my progress report, if you wish to take a look.”

Just as Crystal received the notepad, Black let out a shout from behind, indicating that he was done forcing the crappy food down his throat. Some of the female Dex Holders’ tempers flared at his implications.

“Hey! It’s not like you can do any better!” White yelled.

“Yeah! Why don’t _you_ try cooking?!” Sapphire demanded.

Blue snapped her fingers. “All right then! Let’s change roles! This time, all you males will get cooking lessons from Dia.”

Crystal cleared her throat. “And Gold, Sapphire, Emerald, _I’ll_ be teaching you manners and etiquette this time. If you still don’t show any progress, you’ll be forced to become a servant in this mansion for a month.” She looked over at Platinum. “Is that okay?”

“If you insist, I can discuss with my mother and father. But I do not see a reason as to why your suggestion will not be accepted.”

“Hear that? You’ll be forced to become servants for a whole month. So prepare yourselves!” Crystal yelled at the three rude Dex Holders.

“… Do we get paid?” Emerald asked.

“No!”

…

As the Dex Holders began to file out of the Berlitz Mansion, a thought occurred and Blue turned to face Crystal.

“Wait. If all the guys are going to take cooking lessons from Dia,” she started. “… Does that mean _we’ll_ have to taste their food?”

Crystal nodded. “Yeah. Isn’t that what you had in mind?”

“… Do you think the boys will do better than us?”

“… No.” The girl’s expression hardened as she realized the problem. “…Oh…”

“I think we screwed ourselves over,” Blue said with a sigh. “All we can do is hope that the guys do better than us.”

But sadly, that was not going to happen. Other than a small handful, most of the male Dex Holders have never actually made a meal in their lives…


	14. Indoctrination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on October 23, 2013. This marks the chapter when I finally brought in the two new sets of Dex Holders from the BW2 and XY arcs into the mess known as SR.

Chapter 14: Indoctrination

Aspertia City, Unova, 11 am…

A school bus started to move away from the Trainer’s School, carrying all of its students. They were going on a field trip, once more to the Pokéstar Studios. Cheren’s intentions were different than the last time. This time, he had a… special guest doing a ‘motivational’ speech. And a bunch of nasty surprises for a select few of his students.

Faitsu stared through the windows of the moving bus. Another field trip… After the ‘disastrous’ one last time, she was determined to stay invisible this time.

‘ _Note to self: **stay in the back of the group**. **Do not** appear in another movie, **especially** with **him**_.’

“Well, well! Looks like there’s always an empty seat beside you!” came an annoyingly familiar voice.

‘ _Oh, no…_ ’ She quickly looked over to her side and spotted Rakutsu leaning over.

“You don’t mind if I sit here again, do you?” he asked with a bright smile.

“I – I… um…” the girl stammered out, trying to find some viable method of refusing to sit with him again. But when he flashed her one of his ‘trademark’ charming smiles, her tongue got tied and couldn’t talk anymore.

“Thanks!”

Despite the protest of Faitsu’s Foongus, Rakutsu sat in the empty seat, sitting a bit too close to the girl for her comfort. She didn’t hate him. She didn’t have any negative feelings towards him. He was kind, strong, and damned handsome. But damn it, he was popular. And she had to remain as anonymous as possible. But wherever Mr. Popular here went, a whole ton of attention followed.

“Ah, you’re so lucky!” all the other girls shouted. “He sat beside you again?”

‘ _Lucky? I don’t feel lucky…_ ’ Faitsu avoided eye contact and looked through the window. Her Foongus tried to push Rakutsu away, but he kept inching towards her. ‘ _This is a bad start…_ ’ She risked a glance at him. He was looking directly at her. ‘ _Okay… focus. I can’t let my guard down. I can’t let him know me!_ ’

“Hey, Faitsu, want to be in another movie with me?” Rakutsu asked. “It was fun last time, wasn’t it?”

Faitsu jumped in surprise. “Wh – What? N – No, I… um… I don’t think I’m… um… good enough…”

“What? Nonsense! You did great! Better than great!” ‘ _4 months and I still don’t know anything about her… Is she hiding something? Process of elimination makes her the ex-Plasma member I’ve been hunting…_ ’

“No, seriously, though…”

Rakutsu placed a hand on top of hers, on her lap. The girl’s cheeks immediately flushed. “Hey, is something wrong? You look a little sick.”

Faitsu jumped up. “Y – Yes! I… have been sick for a little bit,” she quickly lied. She faked a few coughs. ‘ _Surely this would…_ ’

Rakutsu put an arm around her, much to her horror. “You know what helps overcome cold? Heat.”

‘ _No, no, no, no, no!_ ’ Faitsu stifled a groan and looked at the sky through the windows. ‘ _Master N… **help me!** Seriously! I can’t take this much longer…_ ’

“As fellow Pokédex owners,” Rakutsu said. “We have a certain responsibility to take care of each other and know each other.”

‘ _Stupid thing… I knew this thing would haunt me some day… Why did that Sigilyph have to be so weak?!_ ’

The bus soon arrived at its destination and Faitsu immediately looked for an opportunity to get off. Since she had the window seat, Rakutsu needed to get off first. But he didn’t seem to budge. He kept trying to talk to her. Faitsu couldn’t figuratively spit at a smiling face, so she replied, but in short responses.

Rakutsu didn’t move until everyone else had gotten off. And even then, he insisted in assisting Faitsu off the bus. Totally unnecessary, as she wasn’t physically handicapped!

Faitsu let out a shuddering sigh the moment she got off the bus. Hopefully, Rakutsu would now leave her alone and she’d be able to stay invisible.

An employee of the Pokéstar Studios greeted the students.

“Welcome back to the Pokéstar Studios! Miss Event Planner told me that she had something special planned for all of you!”

Suddenly, Rakutsu and Faitsu’s Pokédex began to emit a loud beeping noise once every half second. Rakutsu stared at his Pokédex, wondering why it did that. Faitsu panicked as half of the students looked over at her.

‘ _No, no, no! Shut up, you stupid thing!_ ’ Faitsu quickly pressed all sorts of buttons on her Pokédex in an attempt to silence it.

The employee continued regardless. “Now then, if you would follow me, please.”

The employee then headed into the main show room and the students began to file in. Rakutsu and Faitsu were with them. But as they passed the entrance, someone was waiting for them. It was a girl looking a few years older than them. She had bright blue eyes and long brown hair tied into a large ponytail.

“Ah, you two, follow me,” she said. “There’s something special planned for you.”

‘ _Oh, no!_ ’ “I – I didn’t mean to cause a disturbance,” Faitsu quickly explained. “I don’t know why that device suddenly made that noise!”

“It’s okay,” the older girl said with a smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

The three continued to walk for a few minutes. Rakutsu noticed that they were walking past a filming stage. So they weren’t selected for another movie. Drat. He wouldn’t mind filming another hit movie with Faitsu…

As they walked in a narrow hallway, the lights suddenly went out.

“Huh,” the older girl muttered. “I wonder what happened. A blackout?” She looked at the two Dex Holders, barely recognizable thanks to the faint light emitting from the emergency exit signs. “Stay close so you don’t get lost.”

Rakutsu took out a Pokéball and pressed a button. Nothing happened. “Faitsu,” he said. “Stay close. Pokéballs aren’t working. This place has been hit with an EMP.”

Faitsu took out her Pokéball and noticed that it didn’t work either. ‘ _Oh, no… what now?_ ’

The older girl opened a door and came across a large room that was barely illuminated. The three walked inside, looking around in an attempt to identify objects inside.

The door suddenly shut on its own. Faitsu jumped in surprise. The older girl looked surprised as well.

“… Something happened,” she muttered. “We have to get out of here.”

Something suddenly dropped from above in front of the older girl. It was humanoid in shape, but completely red with no distinguishable eyes, mouths, or any features. … It had one eye, but on the stomach. The older girl shrieked in surprise. Faitsu jumped in horror and Rakutsu instinctively pushed her away from danger.

The red monster growled and struck the older girl in the stomach. The girl gasped and fell to her knees. The red monster struck her again and she fell to the ground. Much to the two Dex Holders’ horror, the older girl began to turn into one of those monsters and got back up.

“Wh – What’s happening?!” Faitsu cried out.

“Faitsu, run!” Rakutsu yelled out. “I’ll hold these monsters off!”

Faitsu hesitated. She didn’t want to leave a friend behind. And it appeared that she couldn’t anyways. All around them, more of the red monsters appeared. She quickly counted them. There were 15 in total and were all walking towards her.

Faitsu screamed in terror as the monsters swarmed her. Rakutsu embraced her as she raised her arms over her face. Both Dex Holders braced themselves…

… But nothing happened. Faitsu risked opening her eyes. To her horror, one of the red monsters was standing right in front of her. The monster’s face began to melt off… and revealed the older girl who had just become one of the monsters.

“Surprise!” the girl yelled out cheerfully.

“… What?”

All the lights in the room turned on, brightly illuminating the entire place. Rakutsu and Faitsu stared at the red monsters with a blank look as they all began to pull off their heads. Rakutsu looked at the wall of the room and spotted a poster with the same red monster and the title of “Red Fog of Terror”.

“… Movie costumes?”

An older looking girl with bright blue eyes and long brown hair smiled brightly as she walked up towards the two confused Dex Holders.

“Rakutsu and Faitsu, right?” she asked.

The two Dex Holders nodded, but still kept their guards up. The older girl smiled.

“My name is Blue. I’m a Kanto Dex Holder.”

The girl with the large ponytail smiled as well as her monster costume finished melting off and revealed itself to be Ditto. “I’m White. I’m the president of the BW Agency, the Event Planner of Pokéstar Studios, and one of the Unova Dex Holders. Just like you.”

“… What’s going on?” Faitsu asked as she steadily lowered her guard.

White suddenly sighed. “… I know how you feel. I’ve gone through the same thing as you. This is called… indoctrination. Or as Blue would say it…”

“Declaration of shenanigans,” Blue said with a smile. She glanced back and began to introduce each of the Dex Holders.

Gold approached the two new Unova Dex Holders. “Congratulations! You are now one of us!”

Blue cleared her throat. “Rakutsu, Faitsu, as the newest Dex Holders, you are now a part of our group. As of the event today, you are now an acceptable target for various jokes, pranks, and tricks by the Dex Holders, and you will also be involved in all the shenanigans that we cause. Congratulations!”

White clapped her hands together and Black approached her with a camera. White took it and examined through the recording. “I think we can use this in an upcoming movie. Such _real_ emotions! Such great _acting_!”

All the Dex Holders applauded the great ‘acting’. Red stopped clapping and looked at his fellow Dex Holders.

“Hey, come on. We met our newest juniors, so let’s all get something to eat!”

As all the Dex Holders began filing out of the stage, Faitsu stared at her Pokédex in despair. All this… shenanigans, all this attention caused by this thing. ‘ _Stupid thing… what have you gotten me into now?_ ’

…

Vaniville Town, Kalos, 10 am…

…

Inside a dark room, a boy remained lying on his bed, staring at the clock. The second hand slowly made its way back to the very top and the minute hand moved to the next increment when it did.

“3… 2… 1…” the boy suddenly counted. The moment he counted to 0…

“GOOD MORNING, X!!!!” came a loud, _loud_ female voice from directly outside his bedroom window.

“Right on time,” X muttered.

“Come on, get out of there!” the girl yelled out again. “I got some interesting news!”

“Not interested,” X replied. “Why, oh why, won’t you leave me alone, Y?”

“Nice wording, smartass,” the girl said with a huff. “But get out of there! I got something to show you!”

X didn’t say anything. He simply counted backwards from 10. And when he got to 0 again…

“GET OUT OF THERE NOW!!” Y screamed as she began to kick the windows. “Don’t make me go in there!”

X rolled his eyes and looked at the curtained windows. He could see his childhood friend’s slim silhouette… kicking the crap out of the window frame. How could a girl deemed so pretty harbor such violence? He once decided to open the windows at this time. He regretted that decision, as he ended up getting kicked in the face. For someone who spent most of her time in the air, without using her legs, she had some powerful kicks. Do Sky Trainers need to have such powerful kicks?

“Say something! Anything!” Y yelled out.

X sighed. “… Something. Anything.”

He could hear Y roar in anger and her kicks became stronger. “GET OUT OF THERE!”

‘ _She’ll be getting tired pretty soon…_ ’

On cue, Y stopped kicking. “… X, don’t you miss the days when we all used to travel together?”

“The last time that happened, my house _crumbled apart_ ,” X replied.

“But didn’t we have fun?”

‘ _Maybe a little…_ ’

“Come on, you can’t live in your own for the rest of your life. What about all your friends? What about me?” Y sighed. “Come out, X. I promise, if you don’t have fun this time, I’ll…” she suddenly trailed off and X could see her silhouette turning to look at something in the distance. “… What’s that?”

X felt the urge to open the curtains and look through the windows. But he chose not to. It’s probably one of Y’s tricks to lure him outside. Or at least close to the windows so she could drag him outside by using violent force. He was against violence, damn it.

X watched the silhouette of his childhood friend. The girl kept looking off to the side. Suddenly, something flew at her really fast and hit her in the chest.

“Ah!” Y cried out in pain. X jumped in surprise. He observed her silhouette carefully. Y kept her hands on her chest as she began to stagger. “X… help…”

Another small object flew at her again and hit her once more. The girl toppled forward, effectively smashing the top half of her body into the windows. The windows opened inwards, but the glass still shattered upon contact with Y’s shoulders. The girl forced herself up. When she did, X could see two sharp leaves sticking out of her chest. She had countless cuts all over her skin from the fall through the windows, but the sharp leaves seemed to be causing the most pain.

“X… get out of here! Run!” she gasped out. She soon staggered backwards and fell off the roof of the first floor.

X was about to move when he heard loud footsteps coming from the inside of the house. He quickly grabbed his Pokéballs and jumped out through the smashed windows.

“Damn it, not again,” he muttered. He jumped down and spotted Y lying face down on the ground. He went to her side and just as he was about to reach for her, something hit the ground next to him and everything instantly went dark.

When X woke up, he found himself tied to a tree branch in such a way that if the rope binding him was to be removed, he’d fall flat on his face.

“… What the…”

Someone suddenly came into his view. To his surprise, it was Y… She still had two sharp leaves sticking out of her chest and had lots of cuts all over her face and arms. But she didn’t appear to be in any sort of pain.

“So _that’s_ what it takes to get you out of that room,” she muttered with a grin.

“What’s going on?!”

Y smiled as she crossed her arms. “We have special guests!”

“What?!”

Y clapped her hands and lots of people began to appear from various hiding places. X watched all of them. He didn’t recognize any of them.

An older looking girl stepped forward with a smile. “Hi, X. I’m Blue, a Kanto Dex Holder. Everyone behind me are all Dex Holders. From Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. We’re all here to welcome you and Y into our prestigious group.” She then introduced them all to the two Kalos Dex Holders.

Y smiled and nodded. “See? I told you I had something interesting to show you. I warned you like 5 times to come out. You should’ve listened to me when I asked nicely.”

“This is _not_ the best method to show me what you wanted me to see! And when did you ask nicely?!” X yelled. “… And is that a camera?!”

Y looked behind her and spotted White holding a camera. The Kalos Dex Holder narrowed her eyes, but soon lightened her expressions. White was no paparazzi. Just the head of a major filming company in Unova.

“Just filming your reactions,” the Unova Dex Holder said with a smile. “… I know. I’ve been there too. Almost got a heart attack in my birthday, for crying out loud…” She cast a slight glare at Blue before focusing on her juniors. “I’ll give the recorded video so you can see everything.”

Y looked down at her body and pulled out the two sharp leaves… which were shot from Diamond’s Torterra that had been given Wide Lens for pinpoint accuracy. Y then reached into her shirt and pulled out a thin but durable steel plate in which the Mach-One-and-Only-Razor-Leaf shots had hit.

Y rubbed her arms and eyed the cuts. She looked over at Blue with a slight frown. “I thought you said you replaced the windows with your Ditto.”

“I did,” Blue said. She looked over at X’s house and noticed something. “… Oh, oops. Wrong window.”

Y sighed. “At least you placed the soft landing pads in the right place.”

“… What knocked me out?” X asked.

“A simple mix of Sleep Powder and Spore,” Crystal answered. “Nothing harmless.”

“I wanted to include Stun Spore, but apparently that makes it a not-so-harmless gas grenade,” Gold said.

“I had to hold my breath so I wouldn’t pass out,” Y said. “This was all a thoroughly planned event to get you out of your damn room.”

X looked at his predicament. “Including tying me up?”

Ruby shook his head. “No, that was just this particular barbarian’s idea,” he said as he glanced at Sapphire. “Something about you reminded her of me, apparently.”

“Shut it, you sissy,” Sapphire said as she began to untie her junior. X fell to the ground with a thud and slowly sat up while brushing away the dirt. “You’re both the same! You were both once great trainers who lost their nerves and the will to keep training.”

“At least Y here didn’t turn into a complete savage,” Ruby said with a smirk. “If X is like me then Y would be like you, but… she’s civilized. You are not, my illiterate barbarian.”

Sapphire’s eyes twitched. “Why you little!” she roared as she chased Ruby. “Embarrass me in front of my new juniors, huh?!”

Y watched her two seniors for a few seconds before she helped X get back to his feet. “So, how do you feel?”

“How do you think?” X retorted. But he soon sighed. “I have no choice in this matter, do I?”

“Nope!” Blue said with a grin. “As the newest Dex Holders, you are now an acceptable target of _whatever_ shenanigans we plan! Congratulations!”

“… Fine, but one condition,” X said.

“And that is?”

“No paparazzi.”

Crystal smiled. “No problem. There are two Dex Holders who are extremely proficient in chasing away cameramen. No paparazzi will have the courage to follow you when you’re with us.”

Gold and Emerald gave each other a look. “Got your kit?” Gold asked.

Emerald nodded. He took out a small bag from his Platform Shoe and strapped it on. “Li’l Bastard Traveling Kit to the rescue!”

X sighed but smiled for the first time in a long while. “… That’s acceptable, I guess. I’ll give this group a try.”

Y smiled and hugged her friend. “That’s all we’re asking for now.”

“Y,” X said.

“Yes?”

“Don’t do something like this ever again.”

“Only if you don’t lock yourself up in that room of yours.”


	15. Unauthorized Access

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on March 14, 2014. It is chapter 30 in the original SR, but is chapter 15 here. Lots of chapters were canned in the transition to Ao3. And for a reason.

Chapter 15: Unauthorized Access

Gold finished writing down his thoughts in his… future schemes book, better known as a journal. He received a few suspicious glances from some of the other Dex Holders in the meeting, such as Crystal and Platinum. He ignored them for now, since they didn’t seem to care that much.

By the time he finished writing down everything, all the other Dex Holders had left the meeting place to do whatever. The female Dex Holders probably had their own meeting coming up. According to Crystal, there was a meeting once every two days.

As Gold rose to his feet and walked away from the large circular table, his eyes caught something. A couple of books left behind by someone. Huh. They looked like journals of some sort. Diaries?

Gold considered in just calling everyone back over and let the owners deal with them, but… where’s the fun in that?

He quickly picked up the two books and stuffed them in his bag. He then quickly left the scene, just in case.

Soon, after he made sure he was all alone, he opened one of the diaries. He started with a black covered one. The other one was pinkish, therefore belonging to a girl. He was going to save the best one for last.

Gold flipped the diary open to some random page and began to scan through the pages. Pretty standard stuff. It was as if the writer was forced to do this. Gold was about to close it when something caught his attention.

_“I can’t believe that ALL the girls are so damn pretty. And some of them are just so… hot.”_

Gold raised an eyebrow. It sounds like _he_ wrote this. Which he didn’t. So there was another male Dex Holder with the same thoughts as him.

_“Blue, Crystal, the two new girls… and even Platinum and Sapphire! As long as SHE didn’t know about this, I’ll be safe.”_

Hmm… so it wasn’t Silver or Emerald, as they would never view Blue and Crystal like that. Though he should be a bit bothered that someone else was eyeing his girl, he decided to let it slide, since by definition, he was eyeing everyone else too. Gold stared at the entry and began to think of all the other male Dex Holders.

Red? Hmm… it was possible, but very unlikely, given how he shares a pseudo-sibling relationship with Platinum, just like Blue and Silver. Green? Very doubtful. All he ever writes are reports and research entries. Ruby? Perhaps. But his writing would be a bit neater. Diamond? … Probably not, since he wouldn’t address Platinum by her name. For the same reason, it’s unlikely that this diary belonged to Pearl. Black? … Also unlikely, since he never pays any attention to anything and is always lost in thoughts about battling Red. It wouldn’t be Rakutsu or X, since they wouldn’t refer to Faitsu and Y as “the new girls”.

So… what the hell?

Gold decided to probe the others for hints. A series of subtle suggestions and see who reacts oddly.

…

Gold stared at the other male Dex Holders all gathered around near the Pallet Town park. Red and Green were demonstrating some battle tactics to their juniors. Well, those who were paying attention, anyways. Diamond and Pearl were focusing on comedy act ideas, and Ruby was busy sewing up something. Only Black and X seemed to be in deep focus.

Gold watched the demonstration for a while until it ended before he put his plans into motion.

“So, everybody!” he said, getting everyone’s attention. “It’s starting to get damn hot nowadays. So what do you say we all go to a beach or something and cool off? You know? Have a summer party with all 19 Dex Holders.”

“Did Crystal suggest this?” Green asked.

“Nope. Super Serious Gal doesn’t know about this yet. But she won’t miss out if we all go, even if she is a bit self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit.”

Gold scanned the expressions of the other 10 male Dex Holders. Green and Silver had no expressions on their faces, as usual. Red seemed to be focused more about possible sources of fun on a beach than the people involved. Ruby seemed horrified to think about what Sapphire might do to him at the beach, Emerald looked a bit disturbed from the sudden image of Crystal, Diamond and Pearl appeared to think about how excited Platinum might be from the offer, and… Black looked a bit nervous. Rakutsu didn’t exactly seem to care, as he had no intention or reason to get particularly close to any of the female Dex Holders, apart from maybe Faitsu. X just seemed worried about the other people that might be at the beach too.

“How many of us can swim, anyways?” Gold asked, as he focused on Black’s expressions. “I’d imagine senior Blue can swim very well. Crys isn’t that good. Wildchild Girl… no worries there. I don’t know about Platinum or Faitsu or Y.”

“I doubt the Lady can swim,” Diamond said. “Or at least all that well. If we have some safety precautions, I’m sure she’ll love the idea.”

“Faitsu… probably can’t,” Rakutsu said. “Not sure.”

“And I have never seen Y swim in water,” X said. “She has no reason to be able to swim, though. A former Rhyhorn Racer and a current Sky Trainer has no reason to go near water.”

Gold wasn’t exactly paying attention to the replies. He just focused on Black’s expression. The Unova Dex Holder was looking more and more nervous and anxious. Gold grinned. Yep. He found the owner of the first diary…

…

Back at the lab, Gold took out the next diary. Whitish pink in color, with stars and hearts drawn here and there. Obviously, it belonged to a girl. But which one? Hmm… Blue, maybe? But she didn’t seem like the style to go for an overly girly diary. Yellow, then? … Did Yellow even _have_ a diary? All she had was a sketchbook. Definitely not Crystal, as she would have a journal, not a diary, and it wouldn’t be girly at all. Sapphire? … Heh, right. Maybe Platinum.

… Ruby? … If so, this was a serious problem that needed immediate addressing.

Gold flipped the diary open to a random page.

_“Dear Diary…”_

Okay, neat and girly handwriting. So Sapphire was out of the picture. It wasn’t written in computer-style print, so Crystal was out too.

_“A few more Dex Holders joined our group. It felt like yesterday that I was one of the juniors. Now? I don’t know. I’m starting to feel older and older…”_

All right, so not Blue. Since when was she a junior? It wasn’t Platinum either, since the heiress would’ve been very formal. Probably not Yellow either, since she was never exactly a junior either. Back then, the concept didn’t exist. Not Y or Faitsu, since they joined very recently. Which meant, this diary probably belonged to White.

Gold proceeded to close the diary. Since he figured out the owner, he might as well return… … Then again! It would be interesting to skim through to see if there were any… interesting facts.

Gold skimmed through the entries. Again, pretty standard stuff. Or so he assumed. According to this diary, girls liked to shop. A lot. The standard girl stuff didn’t interest him. The whole “certain clothes were cute” stuff made no sense to him. Soon, he found an entry that was… interesting.

_“I saw Red today with his shirt off. I know he’s my senior and whatnot, but… wow. I guess a lot of the male Dex Holders are downright handsome and… yeah. Red, Green, of course Gold, Silver, Ruby…”_

Gold raised an eyebrow. Interesting. So apparently Black and White were having… relationship issues, by the looks of their diary entries. So, White thought he was handsome, eh? Interesting… He’d make notes to fluster the crap out of her when Crystal wasn’t nearby. Just put on some charm and…

Gold grinned and continued to skim through the pages. Very soon, he found an entry that made him almost choke.

_“Oh, Blue and Crystal’s are so… big. I don’t get it. Why don’t mine grow? Even those new girls Faitsu and Y’s are bigger than mine. Crystal gave me an advice and I followed it to the letter, but no progress. At least no visible progress. Though mine are bigger than Sapphire’s or Platinum’s, but… … Y’s are bigger? Come on! I started this earlier than her!”_

Gold quickly looked around to make sure no one was nearby. He continued reading, hoping that he was understanding the entry correctly. If not… he’d stick with his interpretation.

_“In 3 days, we’re all going to meet up and compare by the lake in Pallet Town. Blue’s going to check on our status and help those that need it. I know I’ll need help. It’s starting to get embarrassing.”_

Gold checked the date of the entry. It was 3 days ago. So this… _comparison_ event was today! Now this, he _had_ to see!

Gold ran outside and immediately headed towards the lake of Pallet Town. He had his Pokégear, which he was going to use to… _record_ this event. And take lots of pictures. He just hoped that he wasn’t too late.

…

Gold hid behind a large tree near the lake. The 8 female Dex Holders were gathered by the lakeshore. So the meeting had just begun. Excellent.

Gold focused on his hearing and eyed the meeting. He had to be careful. Sapphire would detect him very quickly if he made the slightest sound.

The female Dex Holders each had a large bag beside them. What could they be holding?

“All right girls, meeting started!” Blue said. “So, Y and Faitsu. How are things going for you? Having fun?”

“Well… um… I guess,” Faitsu muttered.

“Y? How about you?”

“I’m having fun,” the Kalos Dex Holder answered. “It’s really nice to spend time with friends outside, you know? It’s much better than trying to drag X out of his room.”

“Good. I’m sure X will have fun with the others too. White, how about you?”

“Eh, this week hasn’t been that great to me,” White answered. “Lots of… expenses. Including a diary…”

“Well, as long as someone like Gold doesn’t end up with it, you’ll be okay,” Crystal said.

“If you require any assistance, I will gladly help in any way I can,” Platinum said.

“Thank you.”

“Now then… you know what to do,” Blue said. “Take them out!”

Gold took out his Pokégear, but stopped as he noticed something odd. The female Dex Holders all opened their bags and took something out from them. This… wasn’t what he expected. This wasn’t what was written on the diary!

White hesitated but soon embarrassedly took out her _flower pots_. Two small flower pots that had two small plants growing. Faitsu and Y had their own flower pots with bigger healthy plants growing.

“Oh, White, yours haven’t made much progress,” Blue said.

“… Yeah… I know…”

“Did you water them regularly?”

“Yeah. I made sure they got lots of sunlight too! I just don’t know why they’re not growing!”

Sapphire suddenly looked backwards, as she heard a faint smack coming from behind, as if someone had smacked their hand on their forehead. But who would it be? No one would care about some _plants_ growing competition. It was probably just some twigs falling from winds or something.

“Oh, Platinum! Your plants grew so much!” came Blue’s voice, interrupting Sapphire’s thoughts.

The girls all focused on their growing plants and brainstormed ideas to improve growth. As a result, no one noticed Gold leaning against a tree while ramming his head against it.

…

Gold returned to the lab once more, reading White’s diary intently. She did not mention ANYWHERE about growing plants in flower pots. Eh, whatever. Gold decided to return the two diaries, since he found nothing else of interest. He sent a message to Black and told him to meet him inside Prof. Oak’s lab. He then sent White a similar message, telling her that he had something important to discuss with her. Which he did, actually.

The two Unova Dex Holders came pretty quickly, as they were all nearby. Black sat down first, wondering why White had come as well. The girl waved at the two boys before she sat down. Gold noted that she immediately straightened out her clothes. Trying to look perfect, perhaps?

“All right, Dream Boy, Bossy Gal,” Gold started, unable to hide his grin. “I called you two over because I had something… good to discuss.”

Both Unova Dex Holders waited for their senior to continue. Gold snickered and pulled out Black’s diary from his bag. As expected, the Unova boy almost jumped in surprise. White looked over at him, finding his reactions curious.

“Now… Dream Boy,” Gold said. “… I think we share similar thoughts,” he said with a big grin.

White frowned, wondering what he was talking about. Black nervously eyed her and hoped that Gold did not actually say anything direct.

“Oh, we all know that Crys is hot,” Gold said. “And senior Blue too. And even the two new girls. But it looks like you think the same for Platinum and Wildchild Girl.”

White _very_ slowly turned to glare at Black. The boy felt shivers run down his spine as he avoided eye contact. Gold continued.

“Now, I don’t exactly mind you eyeing my girl… as long as it stops there. Don’t make any moves on her.”

“… Black…” White muttered, her tone ice cold. “… Is this true?”

Gold slid Black’s diary across the table and Black immediately grabbed it. White did as well, but Black didn’t let go as if his life depended on it. Which it sort of did.

“Now, Bossy Gal, I don’t think _you’re_ in any position to yell at Black,” Gold said.

He slowly took out White’s diary and the girl immediately jumped to her feet.

“G – Give me that!” she yelled as she desperately tried to take it from her senior. But Gold kept her just out of reach with one arm as he slowly flipped through the pages with the other.

Gold cleared his throat as he found the entry he was looking for. “So… you saw senior Red without his shirt, huh? And you _liked_ what you saw. Oh, you feel the same for senior Green too, huh? And Silver boy. And Fashion Boy. And… ah… even _me_.”

White’s cheeks turned bright red from severe embarrassment. “N – No! That’s not… I… um…”

Gold laughed. “Oh, this is such an interesting development!” He suddenly smiled and lowered his voice. “You should’ve told me sooner.”

White’s cheeks turned even bright red and she couldn’t make eye contact. Gold laughed harder.

“Now Black,” Gold said. “I don’t think she views you _interesting_ enough! And White…” Gold’s eyes dropped half a meter below White’s eyes for a split second. “I think your _plants_ need to grow some more before Black takes notice of you!” he said before bursting into laughter again.

White pulled her vest closer and lowered her head in severe embarrassment. Gold slid the girl’s diary across the table and rose to his feet. Now that he had his fun, he was going to leave the two Unova Dex Holders alone to sort out what just happened. And things were going to be very awkward.

Black and White remained frozen still for a few minutes after Gold left. They slowly retrieved their diaries and awkwardly glanced at each other. Black cleared his throat a few times but didn’t speak. White still kept her vest pulled tightly close to herself and just focused in hiding her blush.

“… Miss President,” Black said eventually. “…”

“… Black…” White muttered. “… Listen… … I didn’t hear anything if you didn’t hear anything.”

“… Deal.”

“Good.” White stared at her diary for a little while. “… Let’s destroy the evidence and make sure Gold doesn’t go around yapping about this.”

“All right.”

* * *

Post Ending:

Gold checked through the contents in his bag again. And again. And again. Odd. His journal/scheme-plans was missing. … Could it be?

…

Blue simply blinked as she read the last line again and again from a… _book_ she found.

_“Senior Blue was SUCH a bitch today. But I’ll get her back. Odd Boy and I have our ways. Note: plant miniature cameras all around her bedroom and send her an Electrode ready to blow on her birthday coming soon.”_

Blue closed the _book_ and slowly headed towards her bedroom, with her Silph Scope ready in hand. So Gold and Emerald want a war? She’ll give them war.


	16. Haunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was first uploaded on August 17, 2014

Chapter 16: Haunted

It was a clear and beautiful day in Sinnoh. Mew flew around aimlessly, trying to find something fun to do. Damn it, it was so bored… It soon passed the rumored “haunted mansion” in the forest near the Turnback Cave. All it saw was a ton of Ghost types all running for their lives away from it.

Oh? There was a large group of people near the forest. Apparently they were having a… meeting? An outing? Something like that near the Spring Path. Probably heading towards Sendoff Spring for sightseeing, maybe. … Time to mess with them!

Mew decided to change the weather. A little Rain Dance, maybe mix in a little bit of Drizzle from Kyogre and bam! Severe thunderstorm! Now to follow them and see what they do.

…

It suddenly started to rain. A lot. A severe downpour with lightning bolts and thunder mixed in.

The 19 Dex Holders who were having a picnic quickly searched for shelter to avoid the downpour. As the “tour guide”, Platinum quickly led the group towards the only structure remotely nearby. A large abandoned mansion in the forest near Turnback Cave. Though technically, it was closer to the Spring Path.

The group managed to reach the large mansion before getting too wet. The large entrance doors were open, so they entered without hesitation to avoid the heavy rainfall.

Blue wiped away the rainwater from her body as she took a look around. “What is this, an abandoned mansion?”

There was no lighting in the large mansion, so the whole place felt creepy…

“Who lived here?” Red asked as he eyed the decorations all over the place.

Platinum straightened her clothes before replying. “No one lived here, seniors. This mansion was built to be abandoned.”

Ruby looked confused. “… Huh?”

“The designers intended to build a horror-park themed mansion in hopes of starting an amusement park here. But every worker sent to the interior of this mansion never returned. Multiple times, the project manager sent search teams, but they all disappeared as well. As such, the project was abandoned. To this day, over 50 people have gone missing in this mansion, and are assumed dead.” Platinum blinked, suddenly noticing the frightened expressions on White and Y. “… I probably should not have said that…”

“S – So this place is… haunted?!” White muttered in terror.

“Rumor has it that the moans and cries of the lost men can be heard during thunderstorms,” Platinum said. Just then, a massive lightning flashed outside followed by a loud thunder. White and Y began to look around in horror. “… I probably should not have said that either.”

Red stared at the walls. “Why’s the paint so… thick red?”

“The designers wanted the walls to be painted red, to appear like blood. But halfway through the painting, the walls appeared to have painted themselves, as more and more walls became fully painted even though no paint was used.”

“Would you stop saying things like that?!” White said in a half-whisper.

Sapphire suddenly looked very serious as she focused on her hearing. “Wait… do you hear that?”

All the Dex Holders fell silent and focused on their hearing. Rhythmic thumps…

“P – Probably just the rainwater hitting the roof!” Y tried with a scared laugh.

“It sounds like footsteps,” Platinum said calmly.

“… Oddly… rhythmical. And slow,” Crystal added.

Blue grinned. “… Like a corpse walking on its own…”

Y began to rub her arms to calm the goose bumps. “Not you too!”

Gold decided to “help”. He snuck up beside Y and whispered. “They’re walking around, waiting for someone to get isolated so they can devour our brains!”

The Kalos Dex Holder simply froze up. White pressed her hands over her ears and shook her head.

“STOP!” she yelled.

Emerald snuck up behind the two girls and with his fake arms stretched around them, leapt towards them. “BOO!”

The two girls shrieked in terror and immediately embraced each other for support. “AHHHHHHH!!”

Gold and Emerald laughed and gave each other a high five. White and Y took rapid breaths to try to prevent suffering heart attacks.

“Well, there’s no reason for us to go deep inside this place, now do we?” Crystal said. “We can just say here near the entrance until the storm passes.”

Just then, the entrance doors shut by themselves very loudly, forcing some of the… weak hearted Dex Holders to jump in surprise and terror. Platinum walked up to the doors and tried to open them. They didn’t budge. Sapphire joined in on the effort, pounding and kicking on the door. Even then, it didn’t budge.

“Huh…” she muttered as she scratched her head. “… What happened? It’s suddenly… super locked!”

Green tossed the Pokéball for his Charizard. Surprisingly, the ball simply bounced on the floor and the Pokémon did not come out. He tried to open it manually, but the ball did not respond, as if its opening mechanism failed. He tried with some of the other Pokéballs, but the same thing happened.

“… We have a problem,” he said as he turned to face the others.

Gold and Emerald glanced at each other and grinned. Emerald started first. He pressed his fake hands to his temples and screamed.

“We’re trapped in here! We’re all going to die!”

Gold went next. “We’re all going to be added to the ghost count here!”

White and Y looked even more scared now. Even Sapphire was starting to look spooked. Green, Silver, and Platinum didn’t seem remotely fazed. The others at least pretended to be unaffected. Crystal whacked Gold on the back of the head after shaking away her own fears.

“Stop scaring your juniors!”

“So… what do we do now?” Black asked.

“We should secure another exit,” Platinum said. “All mansions have several entrances. This one may be locked, but there are bound to be open ones.”

“I – I think we should all go together,” White suggested. “That way, none of us can disappear…”

“That might take a while,” Blue said. “We should divide into 3 groups. There are 19 of us. Two groups of 6 and another of 7 would still have enough members to prevent people from going missing, and yet still cover enough ground.”

“So what, team based division?” Red asked. “Me, Gold, Sapphire, Platinum, Black, and Y in one group?”

“That… might be disastrous for you,” Blue said. “In your team everyone except Platinum would end up charging forward and making conclusions. Even though Y may be scared right now, she’ll follow the group. And if everyone except Platinum do the same things, then you know who’s going to go missing.”

“Then we should divide by region,” Ruby suggested. “I think we can cooperate better that way.”

“… What about me and X then?” Y asked. “… Just the two of us?”

“And do I have to stay with these two lovebirds?” Emerald asked as he glanced at Ruby and Sapphire. “I’d die from hearing their flirts.”

As the other Dex Holders thought, Gold slowly planned his next scare. He slowly walked around the group, looking for the most opportune location to strike. He soon found it. Right behind Crystal!

He slowly crept behind her and took out a flashlight from his bag. He then turned it on right below his face, using the light angle to create a scary face. He then waited for a response. Yellow saw him first and promptly screamed. Crystal jumped in surprise and spun around. She saw Gold and immediately screamed as well. The goggled boy started to laugh, thus revealing his identity. Almost blinded by rage, Crystal promptly kicked him in the face.

Gold stumbled backwards and suddenly, the floor below his feet vanished. Gold flailed his arms, trying to find balance, but couldn’t find it and ended up falling into the unknown abyss.

Crystal saw him suddenly vanish and gasped in horror. She quickly ran to where he was, but… the floor was just fine! There were no stairs or doors anywhere… … Where did he go?!

…

Gold opened his eyes. What the… what?! He fell through the floor… and now he was in some illuminated… bright room thing. With no doors. And nothing else. What?!

Suddenly, something appeared in front of him. He was surprised at first, but he recognized the Pokémon that just appeared. Mew.

“What the… Mew?” he muttered. He recalled hearing about this small Psychic legendary Pokémon from his seniors. Apparently it was a super powerful Pokémon that appeared harmless but was actually… destructive.

\ \ _I brought you here,_ \ \ a voice emanated in his mind. Mew was talking to him?

Gold raised an eyebrow. “Wait… you can talk?”

\ \ _I can do a lot of things._ \ \

Gold shrugged. No arguments there. “So… … why am I here?”

\ \ _I’m bored. Very bored. I think you can provide me some entertainment. I saw you scaring your friends. I like your style._ \ \

“Well thanks. I try to impress.”

\ \ _Right now, you are a ghost._ \ \

Gold blinked. “Come again?”

\ \ _You are technically dead. You will not be spotted by your friends. Yet, you will be able to manipulate objects to make them appear as if they’re moving on their own._ \ \

“Okay… I think I understand what you want from me,” Gold said. “You want me to scare the crap out of a few of the other Dex Holders, right?”

\ \ _Yes. Precisely. It should be very fun. For you and me. As a ghost, you can walk through walls. You can’t talk to anyone, however, as they won’t be able to hear you. You also can’t make direct contact with anyone. Have fun._ \ \

Gold grinned. “Oh, I will.” He suddenly looked a little worried. “So… what, am I permanently dead?”

\ \ _No. You are only technically dead. I can easily put you back into your body. But only once I had my fun._ \ \

Gold nodded. “All right then. Consider it done!” He rose to his feet and walked into the nearest wall, half expecting a bump. But he simply passed through it and he ended up in the hallways of the abandoned mansion.

…

Gold “walked” around the mansion, trying to find his fellow Dex Holders. Things weren’t as scary now that he was one doing the scaring. In fact, since had Mew following next to him, all the Ghost type Pokémon immediately fled from him. Despite the fact that it was invisible, the Ghost types could feel its presence and they did not want to take a Shadow Ball from that thing while it was plotting things so nastily.

He soon came across his first victims: Black and White.

The girl kept her hands over her heart, looking around with a terrified expression. Black kept his teeth clenched, as if he was hiding his fear. Trying to look good in front of White, probably.

Gold grinned. Oh, this was going to be so much fun! He took a brief look around. Okay, he couldn’t make direct contact with the Dex Holders, but he could move inanimate objects.

He grabbed a doll from one of the shelves. This… was a creepy-ass doll, for sure. No hair, wide open eyes, and a big freaking grin. Also it was completely pale in color. Gold shuddered. Even now it was scary. But Black and White were going to experience the worst of it. … He couldn’t wait!

Gold set the doll on a table around the corner so that it was sitting upright. He then moved its hand so that it appeared to be waving. Just as he finished, Black came around the corner and saw the doll. He immediately jumped back, bumping into White, which caused her to jump back.

“Wh – What’s wrong?!” White whispered in terror. She couldn’t see the doll yet.

Black remained frozen, so White peeked around him. She gasped in terror and clamped her hands over her mouth so that she couldn’t scream.

Gold laughed to his heart’s content, since he couldn’t be heard. He enjoyed his juniors’ terrified expressions and continued his scheme. He slowly moved the doll’s hand so that it was waving at the two Unova Dex Holders.

Black jumped back again and White started to whimper, as things were getting way too scary for her.

“Black… I – I’m scared…” she whispered in terror, almost to the brink of sobbing.

Black turned around gently embraced her. “Don’t worry… I’m here.” He slowly patted her on the back and the girl buried her face into his shoulder. “I won’t let you get harmed. I promise.”

Gold groaned and stopped manipulating the doll. “Oh, go get a room!” he yelled at the two Unova Dex Holders. He then realized that they couldn’t hear him. “Damn it. Now I have to listen to all their mushy crap. … Time to scare them senseless!”

He took the doll and slowly moved it towards the two Dex Holders. Because Black was looking the other way and White had her face buried into his shoulder, Gold could move the doll without it being spotted. With a grin, he put the doll on top of White’s head.

The girl gasped and froze. The doll reached down and waved right in front of her face. Gold moved so that he was at eye level with his junior and leaned in very close so that he could see her expression in full.

White had turned ghastly pale. She looked as if she was going to have a heart attack soon. Gold moved the doll so that it poked her in the cheek. That got her going.

White let out a blood curdling scream, which caused Black to jump back, as he was unaware of her situation. Seeing the doll now on her head, he screamed as well. White grabbed the doll and threw it forward, at Black by accident. She immediately started to run away, and Black ran the other way as well, away from the “cursed” doll. Gold laughed and followed White, as she was a more entertaining target. Because he could walk through walls now, it made catching up with her very easy. But he passed her though, so he could set up something to scare her even more.

Mew gave him the doll that it warped in from where it was dropped. Gold took it and placed it on the floor so that it was standing up. White turned the corner and spotted the doll. She couldn’t even scream as she was way too scared. The doll slowly took steps towards her.

White frantically shook her head and tried to run the other way. But the doll kept cutting her off every corner… Gold saw her expression and stopped manipulating the doll. This… was getting a bit too much.

White gasped for air and she started to stagger and sway. Before Gold could do anything (not that he was able to do anything), she fainted and collapsed on the floor.

“… Uh oh…” Gold muttered as he knelt beside his junior. “Uh… she’s not dead, is she?”

Mew shook its head.

“Whew.”

…

White woke up a short while later and immediately found herself trapped in a white empty room with no visible doors. She quickly sat up and scanned around, trying to see if that monstrous doll was nearby. It wasn’t. With a relieved sigh, she got up to her feet and moved around the walls so that she could find an exit, if there was a hidden one. There were no such exits. She tried to press the walls with her palms, in case there was a secret button somewhere. Nope. Just solid wall.

“Hello?!” she yelled. She felt her voice being reflected off the walls all over the place, indicating that this room was completely sealed off. “Anyone there?! Hello?!”

“I’m here,” came a familiar voice from behind.

White spun around and saw Gold walking towards her.

“Gold!” the girl cried in happiness, relieved to have found her senior. “… Wait… how did you get in here? Where were you?”

Gold rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah… about that. This is going to be a shock. I’m a ghost.”

White raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“I fell through the floor and… Mew happened,” Gold said.

White frowned. “… Right…”

“I’ll prove it.” With that, Gold walked straight into the wall, going through it. He came back inside pretty shortly.

The Unova Dex Holder looked surprised, but still didn’t understand what was really going on.

Gold flicked his fingers and he soon went invisible. A doll came out of nowhere (Mew warped it in) and White realized that it was the same doll that haunted her. The doll, now being held by Gold, waved its hand at her. Gold soon became visible again.

White immediately realized what had happened. And she was _pissed_.

“Why you!” she roared in anger as she charged at him. “This whole time… it was _YOU_?! You did this to me?! You almost gave me a heart attack!”

She tried to strangle her senior with all her strength. But sadly, since Gold was a ghost right now, her hands simply went through him.

“Materialize yourself so I can kill you!” White yelled, trembling in rage.

“Whoa, whoa! Take it easy!” Gold said. “I don’t _want_ to be doing this. Mew just wants me to haunt others for its enjoyment. It won’t give me my body back until it had its fill.”

White still kept her murderous glare. Gold was sincerely thankful that he was already technically dead. Wait…

“Huh… how come you can see and hear me?”

\ \ _I’m allowing her to do such,_ \ \ came a voice in his mind.

“… Oh.” He avoided eye contact with his infuriated junior. “Uh… Bossy Gal. Do you… want someone else scared senseless? I mean… I won’t be scaring you anymore, and if I have to go scare others, you’ll be pretty lonely here.”

White lightened her expression. “… That’s actually pretty thoughtful of you after what you did to me. Maybe I can use this opportunity to get closer to some of the others I’ve been having hard time befriending. Y and Lady Platinum, maybe?”

“Sure thing.”

…

Gold soon found his next victim. Y, looking terrified but still on patrol. With X, of course. She didn’t want to be alone in this terrifying mansion. Gold grinned. Easy…

But the two Kalos Dex Holders seemed to be aware of the “possessed doll”, as they were eyeing every single doll still on various bookshelves. So Black had reached the others safely. Interesting.

All right then, Gold would just have to scare Y without using a doll. No direct contact, but can move inanimate objects… Hmm… It’s not like he could grab a chair and whack the girl either. He had to scare her. Not beat her.

X and Y carefully entered another room. Gold followed them and immediately got an idea. He turned the lights on, causing the two Kalos Dex Holders to jump.

“I – It could be a motion detector!” Y said with a terrified laugh.

X didn’t look entirely convinced. “In this old mansion?”

But regardless, now that the room was brightly illuminated, the two Kalos Dex Holders ventured deeper.

Gold grinned and shut the lights off. Y shrieked as she was suddenly enveloped in darkness. But Gold turned the lights on again. And shut it off. And repeated the process again and again.

Y tried to make a mad dash towards the open door, but Gold quickly shut it. Even more terrified now, Y quickly made her way back towards X. But to her horror, he wasn’t there. Mew had warped him out of that room and into a random hallway so that Y would be left all alone.

The girl started to whimper as the lights kept turning on and off. Even worse, a chair in the room was moving on its own. But only when the lights were off. She just saw it closer and closer each time the lights turned on…

She fainted shortly after upon seeing the “possessed doll” sitting on the chair when it was so close that it was touching her. Gold saw her collapse and stopped with the lights. It was hurting his eyes too.

Well, he wanted to scare Y without using that doll, but apparently Mew liked it too much. Fine, whatever. Only Platinum left for now. Then at least White would be okay and Mew might even let him go!

… But… the heiress wasn’t the type to get scared. Sure, she could be frightened, but not with ghosts or crap like that. She was only ever scared of upsetting those above her. Seniors, parents, etc. Maybe regular friends too. She only ever looked terrified when Green yelled at her that one time.

So this might be difficult. Gold watched Y’s body vanish as the girl was warped into the same “safe room” as White. Gold then left the room to go find the heiress.

…

Platinum examined the books on the bookshelf as Diamond and Pearl kept their guards up. The boys were more scared than the girl, but couldn’t show it. The heiress was looking fascinated with the collection of books…

“… Lady? Aren’t you… scared?” Diamond asked.

“Huh? Oh. No, not really,” the heiress answered. “This mansion has a lot of books… I wonder if the designers of this place brought in these so they would not get bored during maintenance…”

The heiress detected motion from the side and looked over. Down the hall, something was coming closer. A doll. Walking on its own.

Diamond and Pearl saw it as well and looked very alarmed. Platinum… did not.

“… Miss Lady… we should get out of here,” Pearl suggested.

“Yeah, Lady. Remember what Black said?”

“Be reasonable,” Platinum said. “It is merely a doll. It cannot kidnap someone. I am more curious as to how the doll is moving. But I suspect a Ghost type Pokémon is controlling it, trying to scare us. If we do get scared, we will be encouraging it more and more.”

The doll kept coming. Platinum approached it so that she may see exactly how “scary” the doll was. Black _may_ have been exaggerating, and she wanted to find out.

Gold slightly panicked as he kept moving the doll. Platinum was supposed to be scared! Not interested! Diamond and Pearl looked terrified, but Platinum…

Gold decided to kick it up a notch. He lifted the doll slowly and made it hover towards the girl. Platinum still didn’t even blink. Gold slowly rotated the doll’s head all the way around. Platinum simply tilted her head while Diamond and Pearl looked as if they were about to run like hell.

The doll approached Platinum and tapped her cheek with its hands. Again, nothing. The heiress poked the doll in the cheek in return.

Gold scratched at his head. How was he supposed to scare the girl? He could try screaming at her in person, but that wasn’t fun. It was just hurtful for her! Hmm…

Plan B then. He threw the doll forward, just over Platinum’s head. Diamond and Pearl screamed and tried to run. Unfortunately, they seemed to have forgotten the fact that they had turned a corner, and ended up running directly into a wall, thus knocking themselves out.

“Diamond! Pearl!” Platinum shrieked as she quickly ran towards them to check on their condition.

Gold quickly ran towards one of Mew’s “toy” rooms. Apparently there were lots of stuff there that required walking through walls or using Teleport to access. The moment he entered the room, he ran into a skeleton, and he jumped in terror. It took him a few seconds to realize that the skeleton was actually just a full sized model, for a science class. It did not belong to one of those “missing” men who worked on this mansion.

Or so what Mew said.

“Whatever happened to the men who went missing here?” Gold asked.

\ \ _I sent them to a completely different region to see how they would handle their situation,_ \ \ Mew answered. \ \ _They weren’t funny so I sent them home after two months._ \ \

“Ah. All right then. I guess I’ll use this skeleton now to scare Platinum. Or try to. Hey, at least I got Dia and Pearl.”

Gold walked through the wall again and Mew warped in the skeleton from the hallway. Gold grabbed its wrists and placed its feet on top of his, so that he could get it to simulate walking. As long as he walked with his arms stretched forward, the skeleton would appear to be doing the same. If this didn’t scare Platinum into unconsciousness, he didn’t know what would.

Platinum still kept trying to wake her two friends. She held Diamond in her arms and tried to fan some air into his face, but nothing happened still. Just then, she detected motion once more and looked down the hall. She found a skeleton slowly moving towards her with its arms stretched forward. She simply blinked.

With a loud moaning sound (made by Mew), the skeleton started to run with its arms flailing in the air. The heiress slowly and carefully set Diamond down on the floor and walked up to meet it. The skeleton kept running, but stopped before running into the girl. It still kept its arms flailing. Platinum simply looked at the skeleton from skull to toe. The skeleton suddenly moved closer as if it was saying “boo”. Just then, its skull fell off and rolled on the floor.

Platinum picked it up handed it back to the skeleton. The skeleton took its skull with its hands and placed it back onto the spinal cord. It then crossed its arms, as if it was thinking. Platinum giggled, as she found this situation to be quite… funny. A “possessed” skeleton, failing to scare her, was now thinking of new things.

The skeleton began tapping the floor with its foot. Well, it tried. Since it was hovering slightly above the floor, it couldn’t make contact. But it was starting to look funny. Just then, Red, Yellow, Crystal, Ruby, and Sapphire arrived around the corner, having spotted Diamond and Pearl lying unconscious. The five Dex Holders spotted the skeleton right away. The skeleton jumped towards them, ignoring the unfazed Platinum.

Red jumped in surprise while the other four screamed in terror. Especially Yellow, who passed out shortly after. Sapphire realized that her junior was watching, and forced herself to calm down. She quickly pulled the skull off of the skeleton and drop kicked it FAR down the hall.

The skeleton felt around its spinal cord before it ran down the hall to retrieve its skull. While Crystal, Ruby, and Sapphire sighed in relief, Platinum giggled at the skeleton’s somewhat comedic performance.

Gold picked up the skull and placed it back on the skeleton.

“Damn, that girl is impossible to scare!” he muttered. “What the hell! … But at least I got senior Yellow and scared the crap out of the bickering duo along with Super Serious Gal. … Before Wildchild Girl drop kicked the skull, anyways.”

\ \ _Yes. It was amusing to watch,_ \ \ Mew said in his mind. \ \ _I think you fulfilled your duties now. This has been quite entertaining. I’ll revert you back to normal._ \ \

“Yes! Thanks!”

The heavy rainfall outside stopped and the sun started to shine. All the lights inside the mansion turned on, illuminating everything, thus allowing the Dex Holders to navigate easily. All the doors opened as well, so that they could escape.

Y and White were warped out of the “safe room” and into the hallways around the other Dex Holders so they could be found again. Gold was reverted to normal right next to them. It was Mew’s parting joke.

The moment he got his body back, the first thing he saw was White, looking very pissed off. He turned around and spotted Y, looking even more angry. At him.

“… Uh oh…”

“Get him!” Y yelled as she charged at her senior. White joined her junior, and Gold simply ran like hell.

“But it wasn’t my fault!” Gold yelled as he ran for his life. Oh, when the two girls told everyone what happened, Crystal and Sapphire were going to be _so_ angry… … Maybe he could bribe White and Y to not tell anyone…

* * *

Post Ending:

“Really?” Emerald asked. “Mew set you up like that?”

“Yeah,” Gold answered. “But it was sure fun. Even if Bossy Gal and the new girl hate me for a while. I told them it wasn’t my fault, so maybe they’ll get off my back shortly.”

“Cool. Hey, next time something like this happens, recruit me!” Emerald said. “I want in on the fun too!”

“You got it.”


End file.
